Being a temp can be a pretty rough gig sometimes. Let me be clear that I'm really glad I have this job because I can work past 6 months with them and the jobs I do are actually resume worthy (as opposed to something like Subway or Burger King which is not). But temping is not really all that great.
You never know how long your job will last; you never know what the job is really going to entail (or if you're really qualified to do it); you never know if you can really make plans on your day off because you might be called in somewhere; you never know how much your paycheck is going to be a month from now which makes it soo hard to save and plan ahead; and you don't get paid holidays or sick leave.
But I think the thing that annoys me most is how undervalued you are. You come in to a place, pick up without training where the other person left off, you get paid less that regular employees, and no one seems to notice when you bring in new sales, organize their disorganization, catch their errors, and/or save them money.
Last week really annoyed me when I received a phone call after business hours the night before I was supposed to come to work asking me not to come in because they were too busy to put together some work for me, and then they asked for me to come in the next day instead (never mind that it was supposed to be my day off and I had made plans) because they thought they would have stuff put together for me then.
Is this really acceptable business etiquette? It just made me feel so disposable. It's really not nice to do that do that to people. They really could have given me a few days notice--even one day's notice would have helped. With the combination of a holiday last week and them canceling on me, I was only able to work two days and made a total of $190. That's just not enough...
I'm just getting so tired of temping. It's not great work. There's no security and no value in the work other than it looks better on your resume than other casual jobs. But because of my visa situation, my work options are limited. I guess my gratefulness extends to about the sum of my weekly paycheck (which isn't very big).
You never realize how much your work life effects your personal life until you're in a job that lacks.
1 comment:
I've done my share of temping (b/w Korea and Peace Corps, b/w P.C. and grad school, summers, etc.) - and I agree! Actually I often did feel appreciated; it seems there are so many incompetent/unreliable temps out there that people noticed when I did a good job (or even when I just, say, showed up on time two days in a row!). But yes, never knowing if/when/how long you'll work is no fun at all. Just remember: this, too, shall pass!
-Heather
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