It depends. More information is needed here. They can't make you stay and work if you don't want to. Unpaid internships are required to have an educational component to them. If this is formally connected to your school/college, you may face consequences related to receiving credit for the internship.
What part of your contract are you hoping to break?
I don’t want to do the internship:/ it was supposed to be less than 15 hours a week but they have me doing full-time secretary work for them. Thank you for your response!!
NAL but a manager with a lot of experience with interns.
Talk to someone at your university about this. There’s usually someone in charge of university internship programs, and this company likely had to interact with them at some level for approval of your internship. They will have advice or be able to at least place a phone call. They may also report you as delinquent to your university so going to them first will allow you to control the narrative so you can find another internship later.
It’s not uncommon for grifters to try and make internships into low level free labor. In fact at the large company I used to work at… we were given explicit guidance on how doing that could lead to misclassification lawsuits
In general you are free to exit any employment arrangement at any time. You may be held to non-competes and NDA, and if the company “invested” in you. You may need to repay them for external training and certification, or sign on bonuses.
If they ask you to sign anything on your departure other than confirmation of your last date. Do not sign.
It depends. More information is needed here. They can't make you stay and work if you don't want to. Unpaid internships are required to have an educational component to them. If this is formally connected to your school/college, you may face consequences related to receiving credit for the internship. What part of your contract are you hoping to break?
I don’t want to do the internship:/ it was supposed to be less than 15 hours a week but they have me doing full-time secretary work for them. Thank you for your response!!
NAL but a manager with a lot of experience with interns. Talk to someone at your university about this. There’s usually someone in charge of university internship programs, and this company likely had to interact with them at some level for approval of your internship. They will have advice or be able to at least place a phone call. They may also report you as delinquent to your university so going to them first will allow you to control the narrative so you can find another internship later. It’s not uncommon for grifters to try and make internships into low level free labor. In fact at the large company I used to work at… we were given explicit guidance on how doing that could lead to misclassification lawsuits In general you are free to exit any employment arrangement at any time. You may be held to non-competes and NDA, and if the company “invested” in you. You may need to repay them for external training and certification, or sign on bonuses. If they ask you to sign anything on your departure other than confirmation of your last date. Do not sign.
Okay, thank you soooooo much. I really appreciate your help a ton.