Need a internship short case in 20 hours

Case 1:

I was hired in as a technical intern for an engineering department in a production facility along with two other college seniors. I would soon find out that one of the interns was the son of our direct supervisor, and later realized that the other is the boyfriend of a lead in our department. At first we were given simple duties, minor responsibilities, mostly exposure to the shop floor as well as data metrics in order to give us a good technical foundation for what was about to come.

Recently the son of my supervisor and I were given the opportunity to fill the roles of two shop floor engineers who had left the company. We were each assigned our own section of the assembly line to manage efficiency and productivity numbers, data metrics, job scheduling and forecasting for our assigned cost center.

Compared to the duties we had before, we were being fire hosed with responsibilities; in fact they were the responsibilities of a full salaried engineer. I saw this as a great opportunity to prove my worth and do anything I had to do in order to ensure a position in the company after my internship. My supervisor’s son on the other hand, soon became frustrated with the increase in responsibilities and mandatory schedule. In order to have enough time to calculate and provide data metrics for the prior day’s productivity, we had to be signed in by 5:00 a.m. sharp and be available to support a full day of production until 3:30 p.m.

The son of the supervisor has routinely been coming in just before 6 a.m. The rest of the team is left with the responsibility of getting his numbers started, when we barely have enough time to process our own by the assigned deadline. Even so, if we miss our deadline and are called out on it, we bite our tongue and never mention anything about the increased workload having an effect. Lately he has also been leaving early while his production team still needs support from him, leaving us to cover his line. It has become apparent that the increased workload has become bothersome to most of the team, and we openly express our feelings about the situation to each other, but no one has yet to bring up the issue with our supervisor.

The other day as the team and I were discussing possible solutions to the problem, I thought why not bring in the other intern that was hired along with us to pick up the slack? We soon realized that was a whole different issue. As we dug a little deeper, we realized that the intern was coming in on his own schedule and staying as long as he wanted, but coincidently his only responsibilities were to support his girlfriend. As the rest of us were slaving away, he was coming in at lunchtime, signing in, web surfing and then taking a two hour lunch with his girlfriend until the rest of us were let go at 3:30 p.m., the end of our business day, all of which our supervisor is aware of, but has yet to act upon.

Case 2:

I am currently interning at a senior living community called Old Folks Senior Living. This community has two buildings with three different living sections. The first building consists of the Assisted Living (AL) and the Dementia/Alzheimer living. The second building is for Independent Living (IL). Each building has its own kitchen, staff and Dining Services Director. I have been working directly with the Dining Services Director in the Independent Living building. A major part of my internship consists of shadowing my supervisor and assisting him with his day-to-day activities.

Throughout the course of my internship I have had the opportunity to interact with all of the staff. They have informed me that just before my arrival, there had been a change in Executive Director. He is in charge of overseeing both buildings and implementing any major changes. The previous Executive Director was fired because he had not been budgeting the finances correctly and had been using company money to fund personal events. As a result, the new Executive Director was brought in with the specific purpose of increasing profits and minimizing costs.

He has been relentless in his efforts to save money. He has placed a strict limit on my supervisor’s spending budget. He has also limited the number of available employee hours. He is extremely resistant in allowing my supervisor to purchase items such as cooking utensils, dishware, employee aprons, tablecloths, and office supplies. He wants them to make due with what they already have.

As a result of his “penny pinching” philosophy, he has gone a step further. He decided that he was going to cancel the yearly employee Christmas party. This was something that all the employees look forward to every year. It had been established since the very first year that Old Folks opened its doors in 2004. He told everyone that there are simply no funds available for a Christmas party. He has also put an end to the annual Christmas bonuses that the residents at Old Folks give to the employees, stating that it violates Old Folks policy.

There is nothing in the employee handbook stating that there has to be an annual Christmas party. It does state that employees are not allowed to receive any type of compensation or gifts from any of the residents. However, this has been a tradition every year and the employees have looked forward to the Christmas party and bonus every year. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened and as a result, the employees have been deeply demoralized.

I personally have seen how hard they work and how productive they have been even when they are not provided with proper tools in order to succeed. That in itself should be a reason to reward them, not punish them by taking away something they look forward to and rely on each year. I do understand that rules are rules but does that make it right for the Executive Director to do this to his employees? Would it help if I talked to the Executive Director about how the employees feel or would he just blow me off because I am technically not an employee?

Case 3:

The problem that I am currently facing at my internship is being crammed with work. The reason this started is because my bosses noticed that I can be more useful to them than just an office manager. They started calling me into their meetings regarding expanding the business and potentially opening a new hospice. I shared my opinions about different issues related to expanding the company including employee satisfaction, employee recognition, patient satisfaction, and professionalism. I know they respect my opinion because they always ask me questions and want my feedback for different things.

The problem that I am having wasn’t really bothering me until last Thursday the 19th. My bosses called me into their office to possibly take on another project. This project included working on weekends and maybe more hours during the week. I was hesitant to take the project because the weekend is the only time I get for myself and it is very valuable to me. When I was hesitant I felt that they were disappointed. I do not know how this is going to reflect on me. I got hired as an internship project but I know they were definitely going to keep me in the company. I hope how I reacted on the offer on Thursday didn’t disappoint them so much.

I would like to know what would be the best way to handle this situation to make sure I still have that relationship with my bosses. I do not want them to think that I am not going to be in on future projects. I told them that I am currently taking 5 classes and it is really tough for me to make any extra time. Will it be okay for me to point out exactly what I do on a daily basis so they realize my work load or do I just let them see for themselves?

Examples of Not-So-Good Short Cases

Case 1:

Currently, the organization I am working for produces award-winning yoga story adventure classes on DVD for preschools. They improve focus, fitness and motor skills while also teaching children to regulate their emotions and develop resiliency. We are having problems with people not paying us and we have to call and get in contact with the people for them to pay us. We are currently selling the DVD’s at a discount and we are not really making a profit from them like we should be. We are trying to figure out a price point that is profitable for the company but is still reasonable for our cliental. A lot of our clients want the DVD’s at a discount but my manager which is the owner of the company can no longer afford to do that. There is value is our DVD’s and our clients need to see the value and realize that the DVD’s are worth the price but before we can make them see the value we must see the value in them first.

 Our website has been messing up lately, our server was hacked and people are trying to place orders but are unable to. We fixed the problem with our server but will still need to get updates, and SSL requirements met which are requirement that anyone with a website needs to have met. It is important that we figure out these issues as soon as possible because if our customers can’t order online then that means we are losing out on money.

 We are also having issues with packaging/design. I think our designs and packing for our DVD’s and website are very nice but some employees think our website is too busy, some think we should add more, and some think we should take off things we have posted on our website because it’s not really necessary. It would be nice if we all could get together and talk amongst ourselves and come to an agreement on designs, packaging, graphics, branding and etc. However, many of our employees live in different states so that would not be possible but we will be holding a conference call this week to discuss the website and the issues we have been having.

Case 2:

Gotham Airport (GTA) is one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world. Every day there are countless takeoffs and landings on both the 16R (one six right) and 16L (one six left) runways. Runway 16R is the bigger of the two runways and the one that experiences the most traffic. The airport opened in 1908 and it has been more than 50 years since runway 16R has been reconstructed. Up to this point 16R has only been fixed on an as-needed basis and has never experienced a complete renovation that it truly needs.

GTA is planning to begin a reconstruction of 16R in November 2012 and anticipates that it will be completed by late 2013. This project is not only going to affect the aviation operations that occur at GTA, but also the Public and Community Relations department. There will need to be constant updates to the GWA (Gotham World Airports) website detailing each step of the process, the creation and sending out of press releases to the various media outlets, the creation of new literature and flyers, and also requiring the PR department to be in the loop with regards to the various stages of the project.

Currently, I’m interning at GTA in the Public and Community Relations department. GTA has a small Public Relations and Community Relations department. There are six part time employees, and only one full time employee, who is the director of PR. The renovation of 16R is a massive project that requires full attention and dedication. The airport manager has floated the idea of having the PR staff completely change our focus from community outreach to being solely focused on the 16R project. This means putting aside the community relations aspect of the department, such as attending and sponsoring events, and for almost a year being entirely dedicated to 16R.

The other, more costly alternative that is being discussed is to hire an outside agency to take over this project. This would allow the Public and Community relations department to continue operations as usual, but since GTA is a general aviation airport it doesn’t have the same budget as a bigger airport, such as LAX. Our budget is significantly less than LAX’s and any additional expenditures will have to come out of the PR department’s budget. This will limit the ability of the PR department to sponsor events and to be that link between the airport and the community.

Case 3:

I started a clothing company 2 years ago making sequin dresses and skirts by hand. I decided that I should consider outsourcing and getting my items made so that I could sell more and possibly sell to boutiques wholesale. After much research, I chose a production house in nearby Chatsworth. I didn’t have connections elsewhere (like China) and this place was willing to take low minimums. I was resistant because I knew costs would be high, but I knew I would have good control over the project because it was close. My materials cost was $10 per dress, and the production house charged me $9 each to make. I brought my fabric, patterns and design labels to the factory and production began.

 Or so I thought. I thought my dresses would be done in 2 weeks because I was only having 75 made. I advertised my new dresses and marketed them to get a buzz going. I spent hours planning the grand reveal and hunted down models for my shoot. I was excited and anticipated this next step for my company. After not hearing from the production house, I began to worry. Then, I could not get ahold of the lady in charge. After leaving 3 messages, I showed up to find the production house closed. I had arrived after hours, apparently.

 Turns out the owner had left the country. I had given them almost $1000 worth of fabric and could not believe she didn’t let her clients know. She wasn’t reachable via email and I was told she would come back soon and then they would start my order. There wasn’t even a second-in-charge person who could adequately help or complete the task. She finally returned, and my dresses were eventually completed. They made me feel bad as if it was my fault they couldn’t start the project. After 3 months I had finally received my product. They did an okay job…. but the dresses were cut too short and they were of course, very late. I did not receive a discount. I was unable to sell many of them because I missed the height of the demand, so my time and money spent on advertising was wasted.

 I encountered several management issues in this situation and it is a real life scenario as an entrepreneur. I am extremely cautious and weary about doing this again. If I am to gain success with my company, I must mass-produce. The only way to make it big in fashion is to outsource. For now, I am making dresses by hand, again. How could I have communicated better? How could I enforce what I was told by my supplier? What grounds did I have as a small client? What future options do I have? Can I trust production houses? How can I keep my costs down? Is it worth the risk?