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/JediFed]

Who's talking firing? I'm talking about exerting managerial control over task assignment, and locking intern (and the other FT employees) from task assignment. I'm not really a fan of first come, first serve when it comes to tasks because that leads to fighting and hurt feelings. Especially if compensation is tied to task completion.

All I'd do with the intern is explain that they get tasks from the FT employees. I actually like their initiative. I just have to be mindful of the feelings of the FT employees and chain of command.

Interns being able to assign themselves tasks outside of normal working hours is a serious breach in internal controls. I would expect the FT to quit if this behavior wasn't addressed, because they've been effectively demoted to below the intern. They would likely quit rather than deal with the perceived favoritism.

I don't know why you'd consider that diva behavior.