Intern's supervisor singled me out to count ice-chests in 102+warehouse

[DieteticIntern]

I'm paying for this internship through the graduate school of allied health in another state. I'm living at my folks' for the summer in Texas.
My supervisor ordered me to go to one of their warehouses and COUNT ICE CHESTS all day in a warehouse that was over 102-degrees. Of course, I was expected to continue wearing my "OFFICE ATTIRE" which was ruined by 4:00 PM!

Why am I the only intern out of 10 that was told to do this? The Supervisor says that I must be "Supervised" at all times, yet she was nowhere near the warehouse the entire day!

Tomorrow I think I'm supposed to go out there again, to count additional ice chests that will be coming into the warehouse. What should I do, and is this against a Texas law?

 

[de_novo]

I don't know Texas law per se, but if these are some of the tasks that need accomplished for this internship, I don't see why they would be legally wrong to do this since you would have known what type of business they had and could expect to do something like this. However, that is only speculation. My suggestion is that you calmly discuss the situation with the person in charge and see if they are willing to either have someone else do this task, or willing to make some other type of accomodation. I have worked in the heat in the summer before, but knew what I was getting into. when problems arose, I discussed them with the employer.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Counting ice chests in hot weather is not discrimination, although it's a bit of a strange thing for a dietetic intern to have to do (I'm an RD in so called "real" life).

Although my internship was decades ago, I do remember having to do some unusual things in my internship when I rotated through the administrative side of dietetics. Working the tray line, working in the dirty dish room, stocking food items. Things a dietitian would really never do; however, it did teach us the fundamentals of food service.

Probably why, once I graduated, I stayed on the Clinical side of Nutrition throughout my career.

Gail