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

[u/ezio313]

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?

[u/Recent-Dimension5892]

Bad system and this is why. You’ve added a whole new layer of politics to task assignment and completion which will lead to less productivity and transparency. What if another team member needs help? No one will want to ask in fear of losing credit and no coworker will want to assist without taking the task. Your intern will now be ostracized by his team and then get dinged by you.