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Job Number Seven, Temp Agency

Being a temporary employee is quite stressful, I won’t lie. Maybe it’s easier for someone who is more secure with their identity, but it wasn’t easy for me. I had no idea what to expect, and I had zero office experience. Having a Bachelor’s Degree in English didn’t give me any skills to use within that environment, except maybe typing. I could type at least 80 words per minute, but I had no idea about the different departments within an office. My first job was in a company which certified clean rooms, rooms which scientists used for their work, for instance. There are also clean rooms in hospitals. I worked in their office, and most of what I did involved preparing reports that were given to customers after service and maintenance on their clean rooms. I used Microsoft Excel to draw room layouts and enter data gathered by technicians. I enjoyed the job, and found it utilized my creative side.

The bad side of the job was that the girl who was training me had chronic migraines. Let’s call her Cranky Sue.

I hated Cranky Sue. Eventually, I despised her. The reason the company hired a temp was that Cranky Sue took off so much time from work, they needed someone to support her and do her job when she couldn’t come to the office. The problem was that she wasn’t there often enough to train me to do the job, and then when I wouldn’t know exactly what to do, she’d get mad at me. And I didn’t feel confident enough or in the right place to complain. At every job placement when you’re a temp, you’re just trying to do your best job so they’ll offer you a permanent job. At least, that’s what I was doing. I kept my mouth shut about the way Cranky Sue treated me, and I often wonder if others in the office knew.

I lasted three months. One Friday afternoon, the managers of the office brought me into the conference room and said, “We won’t need your services anymore. We feel you’re not aggressive enough, and you’re not learning the job well enough. Today will be your last day.” Immediately, I called my agent and told her what they did, and she was upset because they were supposed to give both of us notice so that she could find me another job. I panicked right away because in order to pay my rent, I had to work full-time. I couldn’t afford time off while my agent looked for another job for me! (The only job my husband could find was part-time sales person in a retail store at a local mall)

I waited until I got into our car when my husband picked me up at the end of the day to cry. I’m still surprised they made me work the rest of the day after “letting me go.” I felt like I was fired, even though technically I was employed by the temp agency.

My next placement was probably my favorite. I worked in the mail room of a medical company’s regional office. My job was to sort incoming mail and to prepare outgoing mail. It was so simple. I signed for incoming Fed-Ex and UPS letters and packages, and every few weeks, I prepared a large mailing out to medical centers around the country. I came up with a system and I was able to do all my tasks efficiently. The office manager was impressed with me, saying it took me quarter to half the day to complete what the regular person took an entire day to do.

Problem was, I was filling in for the regular person who was out on medical leave. They couldn’t hire me permanently in that position, and they didn’t have any other open positions. I wish I could have stayed there. They actually had me come back a few months later when the same person went on vacation, but again, I couldn’t stay permanently.

My next assignment was part of a company that was doing a voluntary recall of a household and business installation item. I was hired to fill in for someone on maternity leave and it was the highest paying temp job I had worked at thus far. It was also one of the easiest, as most of what I did involved data entry, and I love data entry. It’s so simple and straightforward. It gives me a goal I can see – get to the bottom of this list and you’re done. I enjoyed it, and I had a wonderful coworker who was also a temp. I finally had someone to confide in and relate to within the office world. It’s hard being a temp!

The coolest part of this job was one day when I heard an excited fellow-nerd exclaim very excitedly, “I just talked to the Skywalker Ranch!” I was so jealous of that guy.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay at that job, either. The woman on maternity leave came back, and I wasn’t chosen to stay on full time. (In hindsight, I wonder if they knew how much time I spent on the internet…) I miss that coworker to this day. We laughed so much together that we separated ourselves from one another so we could get our work done. We got to go out together for lunch before my last day, so I got to say goodbye. Finally someone cared that I was leaving a job.

Next was a realty place, but I didn’t stay there long. It was only part-time, and it was the only job my agent could find me though she knew I needed to work full time to pay my rent (my husband was still working part time retail at this point), so I searched for a job myself and found one very quickly.

I was nervous at all of my temp jobs, eager to find a place to stay and feeling in constant fear of being rejected and let go. Starting a new job is never very comfortable, and when you are a temp, that’s all you do. It’s not for everyone.