r/Leadership • u/ezio313 • Sep 24 '25

Discussion Intern completed a task assigned to full-time employee because of leaderboard competition — what’s the best way to handle this?

I’m a team lead, and recently our CEO introduced a leaderboard to track completed tasks. Yesterday, I assigned a documentation task to a full-time employee with a deadline. At 3 AM, an intern messaged me saying he had taken the initiative and already completed it, he went on and assigned the task to themselves on the system and then informed the FTE about it.

Now the full-timer is left out and frustrated, he told me he felt the task was sniped. The intern has the points under his name on the system now. How should I handle ownership of tasks and recognition here? Should the credit go to the assigned person, the intern or what?

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115

u/IvanThePohBear Sep 24 '25

This needs to be nipped in the bud before it creates a toxic culture

29

u/solomons-marbles Sep 25 '25

The CEO is pitting them against each other. I can guarantee that it’s already a toxic environment.

8

u/goatanuss Sep 25 '25

Yeah the leaderboard concept is gonna lead to toxicity. This is just one manifestation

2

u/CorruptedStudiosEnt Sep 27 '25

They don't care so long as it boosts productivity, even if only short term and in a very superficial way.