I am an intern at one of the Executive Branch Departments that is hosting about fifty interns spread across the various offices. For the summer, the Department decided to provide programming for us interns and help us network with each other by setting up an email list serve. Most of the interns are linked into the list serve via their work emails and so, technically, anything sent to or from the list serve becomes part of the public record. Initially the list serve was used to inform fellow interns about conferences and networking events but within the past two days, two emails that are definitely not appropriate to be sending using government email addresses (both emerged from their AGENCY.gov emails) have appeared on the list.
1) In a "Weekly Intern" email, letting us know about upcoming Brown Bags with Assistant Secretaries and the Staff vs. Interns softball game, the intern in charged of organizing the intern programming decided to announce that it was his 21st birthday. Attached to the email was a long word document detailing the pub crawl he intended to go on later that night (mind you this is a Monday). I need not mention that the majority of interns at our Department are undergraduates and quite a few are under 21. But even so, why on earth would you send this over work email?
But, this was not enough to warrant sending in to DC Intern Blog until I received the following, today:
2) Enjoy a Good Read!
Hey everyone!
You guys should check out my blog sometime! It will either make you informed, pissed or make you laugh! Enjoy when you have a moment!
[LINK REMOVED] -- blog in which she shares her political views on everything from General McChrystal to McDonalds.
You can also follow on facebook, twitter or subscribe to the feed, if you enjoy it !
Take care!
--Stupid Intern
Luckily said email promptly got pushed to my Junk Mail (@ 3:52 p.m., as in during the work day), but since my job involves receiving email responses from many individuals outside my agency I check the junk mail frequently. It should also be noted that blogs, facebook, and twitter are inaccessible from work, and for good reason! You're interning to work, not to send emails to the other interns plugging your blog! I am really tempted to figure out what office she is working in and forward said email to her supervisor. Luckily she's smart enough not to talk about her internship on that blog...yet.
Note to interns everywhere: work email is for work, not for advertising your debauchery or plugging your blogs.
Calm down. Neither of those are that bad. Everyone in DC has a blog and *gasp* a guy went out to multiple bars for his 21st?
ReplyDeleteThe only person who comes across as odd here is the poster. Please get over the fact that your emails are "public record."
I bet the original poster is a hit at parties.
you must really be bothered by her blog... since you clearly took the time to read it
ReplyDeleteI work for an Executive Branch Department also, and while I think as an intern you should act extra professional as not to burn bridges, in my office we are all friends and have fun - sometimes even saying funny things or passing jokes over our work email (GASP). While writing about a pub crawl for your 21st birthday may be lame and slightly inappropraite given his standing as an intern, it seems unlikely that everyone else in your office is a totally boring stick in the mud who never chats with your friends or takes a break from work. Don't be a snitch, that's just mean.
ReplyDeleteThe poster is jealous all the other interns know how to have a little bit more fun...
ReplyDeleteIt's a listserv, not "list serve".
ReplyDelete"email her supervisor"? get a life.
ReplyDeleteI just wonder why the poster let it bother her so much... it's definitely not a big deal, and definitely doesn't really affect the poster...chill out?
ReplyDelete"Public record" seems a little much. Ya, it's archived, but who's going to FOIA or subpoena your nightly plans? I bet the Inspector General or GAO are going to try to crackdown on underage intern drinking, right?
ReplyDeletehahaha, to be honest when you post stuff like this it seems like you yourself are one of those self-righteous interns with the red badge of honor who thinks he or she is incredibly important with an super important job of responding to emails...
ReplyDelete"Public record" seems a little much. Ya, it's archived, but who's going to FOIA or subpoena your nightly plans? I bet the Inspector General or GAO are going to try to crackdown on underage intern drinking, right?"
ReplyDeleteSo true!