Internship and excess hours

[traumamama]

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I'm at a college counseling center and am working many hours over my expected 40. Is there a limit on how much we can work in a week? I have looked online and can't find anything. I'm so tired...

 

[LadyHalcyon]

I'm at a college counseling center and am working many hours over my expected 40. Is there a limit on how much we can work in a week? I have looked online and can't find anything. I'm so tired...

I doubt it. I think my internship year I worked about 70 hours a week. I feel your pain. You could speak with your training director about it

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[traumamama]

I doubt it. I think my internship year I worked about 70 hours a week. I feel your pain. You could speak with your training director about it

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Yah. Tried that. Not real into protecting staff at my site. It's a lot of catering to clients. They basically consider us part of student services.

 

[LadyHalcyon]

Yah. Tried that. Not real into protecting staff at my site. It's a lot of catering to clients. They basically consider us part of student services.

I'm sorry you are having this experience. Especially if they advertised a 40 hr work week. I interviewed at one site that refused to answer how many hours, on average, an intern worked. The were VERY evasive and even turned the question around on me ("are you saying you don't like to work hard?). They never gave me a firm answer and when I asked again a man on the interview panel started writing a note on his pad of paper! I ranked them very low. If the interns work a lot, just say so. I don't like the misrepresentation piece.

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[WisNeuro]

Depends on the setting and how the interns are classified, really. Even then, it can get a little murky. For example, two individuals with the same workload can take vastly different amounts to get something done. For example, one intern may be able to write a full neuropsych report up in 1-2 hours, while another takes 8+ hours. This was true for one cohort at a former place of employment. So, it would really depend on how many f2f contact hours are being asked of interns, and how much time they are given for administrative tasks.

 

[LadyHalcyon]

Yah. Tried that. Not real into protecting staff at my site. It's a lot of catering to clients. They basically consider us part of student services.

That being said, internships care a lot about intern evaluations bc it can impact accreditation. What did your training director say when you brought up the issue?

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[WisNeuro]

To clarify, the way that most internships are set up and how interns are classified, they are not subject to FLSA rules regarding things like overtime and whatnot. At least, last I checked.

 

[Justanothergrad]

To clarify, the way that most internships are set up and how interns are classified, they are not subject to FLSA rules regarding things like overtime and whatnot. At least, last I checked.

That's my understanding as well. It's one of the reasons it's important to get a sense of what is normal at the sites you rank

 

[MCParent]

That's my understanding as well. It's one of the reasons it's important to get a sense of what is normal at the sites you rank

It also speaks to poor management. Responding to high service volume by increasing the load on staff rather than using it as justification for the need for expansion suggests to me that the leadership is more concerned with pleasing the admin than sustaining the center

 

[JustNoticing]

Unfortunately, at most sites (not all) interns aren't classified as either hourly or union eligible employees, so aren't eligible for the same protections or overtime pay as other workers. Additionally, neither APPIC nor APA require internship to be a 40 hour per week arrangement. These are among the many internship related things that absolutely need to change.

 

[temppsych123]

You may want to look into the informal problem resolution options through APPIC: Problem Consultation

If your internship is an APPIC member, there is a minimum number of hours you have to work in the year (1500), but they don't specify a maximum. However, your site may be running afoul of the APPIC regulations regarding supervision, depending on the ratio - per this site (Internship Membership Criteria), they have to provide you with an hour of face-to-face supervision for every 20 hours worked. So, if you're getting 2 supervision hours per week and working 40 hours a week, that's fine, but if you're working 60 hours a week you should be getting 3 supervision hours per week, etc etc.

Good luck...

 

[traumamama]

Thanks- my DCT doesn't seem to care AT ALL about us or the evaluation we are going to give her. It's pretty sad actually.

 

[psyche27]

Is this an APA accredited internship?

Are you talking about actual work hours or are you also counting time reading articles or doing other tasks that are related but not technically work?

Are you timely with your notes (on par with your cohort) or is that factoring into the hours?

It also is going to vary by jurisdiction- In California you can’t earn more than 44 hours of supervised professional experience. My interns also get paid overtime based on California law (eg more than 8 hours in a day or 40 in a week).