Editorial: Internships require more oversight in the wake of tragedy

It should not take a death for a company to examine the working conditions of its employees and interns. 

In the case of German student Moritz Erhardt, an intervention should have happened before he died. 

Last Tuesday, Erhardt, an intern for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, was found dead in his dormitory. The German student was taking part in a competitive seven-week investment banking internship with the company. Sources say the student had pulled all-nighters for three days in a row prior to his death, possibly aggravating an existing health condition that led to his death. 

Bank of America is now examining the working conditions of interns and junior employees to ensure a tragedy such as this does not occur again. And although this tragedy occurred in Britain, the U.S. government similarly provides little protection for interns.  

The program Erhardt was taking part in often has its interns working overtime, according to the bank. It’s understandable that many internships, especially those that hold the promise of employment after the internship is over, are competitive. But it’s time that both the companies and the government work to oversee these internship opportunities for the safety and benefit of the interns. 

Many students apply for and receive internships in their field of study expecting to receive valuable work experience. Instead, they are met with days full of clerical work and coffee runs. Companies that use their interns for grunt work are not providing useful experiences for students, and the students can be left feeling used or misled. On the other side, many companies use their interns as unpaid laborers who are given as much, if not more, work than paid employees. 

Whichever way companies lean when it comes to the work their interns do, the students who apply for these jobs often are not informed of the work they will be expected to do. It should be the responsibility of the companies, along with governmental oversight, to properly inform their interns of their expected work load.

But the interns themselves also play a role in ensuring that employers are aware of their limitations.  

If an internship could possibly result in a heavy workload and a stressful environment for the interns, it is the responsibility of the intern, as much as it is of the company’s, to disclose any medical conditions that may be triggered by the work and to make the necessary modifications. If Erhardt did, indeed, have a medical condition, he should have alerted Bank of America to the problem so that they could have made changes accordingly. 

In medical professions, there are caps on how many hours interns can work during the week and how long shifts can last. Having a similar cap on the number of hours interns are able to work would help interns prevent suffering from exhaustion, which possibly contributed to Erhardt’s death. 

Many interns are students who have other obligations, such as classwork and part-time jobs on top of working their internships. Ultimately, it is the company’s responsibility to ensure that it provides a safe working environment for its workers and interns, allowing its employees enough time to focus on other aspects of their lives than the workplace. Additional government oversight of internships would be a welcome step towards ensuring that interns are receiving the work they applied for and preventing another tragedy such as Erhardt’s.