How to take care of your intern

1. Pay expenses… Travel is a MUST! And I mean the whole trip, if your intern is anxiously sitting on the tube trying to suss out who has a big bag or a pram that might be going through the big barrier you have done something wrong. 
2. 1.5. Lunch is also an expense and don’t ask for a receipt (optional but kind). Put a cap on your interns daily spending, £5 is generally good, and let them spend it how they like. Then they can make a sandwich in the morning and pocket the remaining £3 for a cup of coffee later. (Even a little bit of money feels like pay when you’re a full time unpaid intern) Otherwise they’re forcing down a meal deal for the sole purpose of expensing it later, think of all the fish your saving from microplastics just by letting your intern bring in their silly little tupperware. 
3. Ask your intern what they like to do and what they want to get out of the experience. You’re lucky to have them and it’s mutually beneficial if you keep your intern on side… you never know they might be your boss in a couple of years. 
4. Set up systems where your intern can have a voice. Pretend your intern is a real person (just for a second I swear),  3 months in is usually a good time. Check in with the goals they made at the beginning of the placement and see if there’s anything they still want to learn. 
5. Give your intern an email where they can access everything they need. I know what you’re thinking,  what if my intern has come in with malicious intent to destroy my organisation and steal everything? Remember, interns are people too and you should try to put as much trust into them as a new hire. If you set them up with meaningful intentions to integrate them into the team, it makes it easier for them to take initiative and use their skills. Having an intern email PER INTERN also means they can separate their work from life, you only have to set up the systems once and just clear details once an intern has left and they can have a full understanding of what their work is going towards and how it is benefiting the whole organisation. It also means if you ask them to do a task that may seem simple to you e.g. writing a budget or a proposal, they can look in the drive and easily find examples and you can skip the step of your intern sending you ENDLESS emails asking for you to share documents because they’re too useless to know what an arts council funding application looks like even though they’ve been in art school for 2 years now (idiot). 
6. Maybe a computer? While this is an optional step, a computer adds to all the points above as well as giving both you and your intern peace of mind by keeping all of that pesky private data under your roof. For your intern, it takes away their need to store files on their computer which takes up storage and avoids the awkwardness of turning away a perfectly good intern because of how upsettingly and embarrassingly slow their laptop is. It is also great for tracking down documents made by your intern after they have left. 
7. Tell your intern how to send expenses. Talking about money is awkward, don’t wait for your intern to ask, tell them right away what you are paying for and what you aren’t so everybody is on the same page. 
8. Be patient with your intern but don’t treat them like a child. Remember they have come to WORK, they want to learn about WORK, if you give them tasks just to keep them busy they are not learning about work and you are wasting everyone’s time. This may be controversial but it is ok to let your intern work on their own tasks if you find yourself lost for meaningful ones. HOWEVER, if you are doing something, they should be too. If you find yourself in a position where you have nothing VALUABLE to give your intern to do, you should first consider relinquishing some control and delegating. Then, if you’re still at a loss, contemplate if you reallllyyyy need an intern that badly. 
9. If you find yourself incapable of following these basic actions, you should consider the ethical ramifications of putting an unhappy intern into the world, they are more powerful than you think. I hear you, £5 is insane, especially when you have 12 interns! Half your interns and double your budget it really is that simple. Half your interns and half your stress is what I say! I will reiterate again, when it comes to interns, less is more.  
10. Remember …an intern is not just for christmas. They may come back to haunt you as a successful entrepreneur or gallery director.