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The original was posted on /r/newzealand by /u/Embarrassed_Fix_9742 on 2023-08-25 13:03:35.

I’m a university student in Auckland, doing this important Keystone Course that wants me to work and do 360 hours of stuff for my portfolio throughout the year.

The course officially starts on July 31st, and that’s when they start counting the hours I work, until September 29th, which is when it all has to be done.

Okay, so the issue is this Keystone thing. It’s a bit tricky 'cause not many bosses are looking for interns, especially when things aren’t so great in the economy. And even if they do want interns, they often don’t pay or give any perks. And just so you know, the field I’m into is super competitive, so finding any kind of position is really tough. But if there’s a chance, I’ll take it.

Now, let’s move on. I applied to like 70 different places all over New Zealand, hoping to find an internship spot.

Out of those 70, I got called for 5 interviews and then finally got a job offer.

So, one company called me up, but here’s the catch – they wanted me to start right away, like on June 26th. And get this, they weren’t paying me for all the hours I was gonna put in, and these hours wouldn’t even count for my school internship. I messed up and took the offer, and I also quit my part-time job.

The first few weeks were okay (before my school internship hours started counting), my boss was nice and showed me the ropes.

But then things got weird. My boss started saying negative stuff about the organisation and pushed me to use ChatGPT at work. And it seemed like they wanted me to do way more stuff really quickly.

And when my school internship officially started, my boss kind of left me hanging. Whenever I asked for help, they didn’t really give any. So, all the work I was doing for this government, it started producing bad and consistent bad results, it was from here when I started getting bad feedback. And by the end of my first week (when my school internship hours were being counted), I began getting negative feedback.

I was under so much pressure and even scared while working.

So, I decided to try super hard, spending lots of time on calls, recorded video calls of this government’s stakeholders and really trying to understand everything better. But then my boss just snapped and told me my work was terrible, but said it in fancy corporate language way and was generally passive aggressive from there.

This was my final downfall as I had begun staying and working from home and really tried to get a good grasp of my mental health, and trying intently to work out what was the result they wanted. Not many days ago I also heard the news of the passing of a family member and that’s where I really was not in shape. It was all downhill from here

They even compared me to past interns and blamed me for not doing good work. I was so stressed in that moment that I couldn’t even defend myself or explain what was really going on and now I am deciding to quit and I have a meeting with my University to decide to re-take another internship and transfer to another company.

I would also like your thoughts on this and positive words to help me get through this. I want to know my rights. Was I in the wrong here?

Likewise, what can I do now? What should I even say to my Academic Supervisor?

My mental health has deteriorated, I now not only lack in sleep but I am anxious and I am financially in distress and I have rushed to book with a counsellor and I am in the step of booking or looking for a psychiatrist.

Need your thoughts, your views, your advice, your positive words.

I really feel alone, I am overwhelmed and I am just trying my best :(

Clearly this work is not for me.