Mouthing Off to HR. Well kinda..

I did an internship last year when I was still very young(junior in high school). 3 days before my internship was supposed to start, I called to ensure that i had gotten all the details right. The HR lady I was speaking to casually informed me that I was set to start in the 'second' batch of interns and hence wouldn't be starting at the time I expected. Because this internship was a good distance from where I lived, I had to make travel arrangements and a lot of other accommodations. Out of anger, frustration and just being young, I asked 'So, how would I have known this if I hadn't called you?'. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but she was pissed. I realized this and apologized, she reported this to her boss who apparently didn't care very much and I still did the internship and it went pretty well.
What I want to know is if this can in any possible way hinder my future. Will anyone find this out when running a background check or anything like that? Will I automatically get dinged if they do? Please help. (Just to be clear, it was a mistake on their part. They gave me the wrong package. This may help show why I was upset when she told me like it was no big deal) . They haven't acknowledged that this was their error.

14 Comments
 

Yeah because I'm sure they made a log of all your conversations so they make sure not to hire you for that one email to HR.

...someone's paranoid

Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
 
Best Response

She was wrong and even though you shouldn't have been as terse, she did mess up.

It probably went down as follows:

HR Coordinator: "Hey John, this kid just called me and I told him that he was going to start two weeks later than he thought he was. We didn't email him or call him about this even though we've had the information for weeks. He asked me 'How would I have known my start date changed unless I called you?' but in a like really like abrupt and frustrated way... I know right?

HR Manager: "Soooo you didn't tell him that he was starting later than usual? And he paid for a whole bunch of stuff out that he didn't have to ahead of time because of the lack of communication on our end? And you had to endure a sincere question conveyed in an abrupt manner? Yah... looks like we dodged a bullet on that one."

 

You don't have anything to worry about... this means nothing long term. The longer you work in this industry the more often things will happen where communication breaks down / HR gives inaccurate information. You will get frustrated and your frustration will be justified. However, it's better to just be polite and put it behind you and act like it didn't happen than to lash back on the phone. Definitely don't do anything over email...

 
rufiolove

You don't have anything to worry about... this means nothing long term. The longer you work in this industry the more often things will happen where communication breaks down / HR gives inaccurate information. You will get frustrated and your frustration will be justified. However, it's better to just be polite and put it behind you and act like it didn't happen than to lash back on the phone. Definitely don't do anything over email...

Thanks. I still don't think they've acknowledged that it was their error. But as long as it won't harm my future, then I'll be alright. I was paranoid in thinking that, they'll have it on my file that I was disrespectful or something like that.

 

Here's a piece of advice:

When YOU are the one who's asking for something (a job, internship, loan,etc), try to keep the reactions out of anger and frustration to a minimum.

 

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