*hugs Lola*

There, There..

Thanks. I've needed that all day. Plus, I am freezing.

I've had two hard weeks with temps. Leaving a project after two days because another agency called with a "better" project. Then I come here and everyone is saying how much they hate agencies.

I try so hard to find my temps work. I've been there. I empathize.

I have a recruiter working with me right now (I'm looking to get out of the vendor side of the biz) and he is a moron.

So, I understand. I understand completely.

I'm just sayin' -- you guys suck too.

Heheehehehe.

* resists urge to argue *
* hugs lola also *

Eeeeeeverybody suuuuuuucks (/Michael Stipe)

Sure seems to be a lot of work-related ennui whipping about this year so far, and I'm including myself.

I'm sending off a bunch of resumes this weekend. Wish me luck...

I personally work with lawyers (the biggest assholes in town)...

Hey, I resemble that remark!

At least you fuckers get paid for the work you do. Try doing loads of annoying work in the hope they might be able to make payroll someday and then do some more freelance so you can eat tomorrow, all while the possibility of homelessness hovers off-screen. Then tell me you've got work ennui. Fuckers.

Yeah...but so do I.

Hey! Back in the day (1979-1993), I did a lot of temp work, seven or eight assignments and the only thing the agencies might not have liked was how I was hired on permanently by three of them. (Yeah, they got paid some extra for the placement, but not as much as if I'd kept working through the agency)

I never signed up with more than two different agencies, and I only jumped ship once, on a client who my placementer warned me had a bad rep, in favor of another one that went to permanent in 5 weeks.

I appreciate recruiters like you, Lola_G, who at least try to act like the workers (product) are more important than the companies (customers). And if I ever lose my disability, you'll be the first one I call (even after you're out of the business).

I recently reached retirement age and have cut my work back considerably. Next year, I'll finally end my long career in business.

I wish you all luck with your careers. When you get into your mid-sixties, I hope you are as satisfied with your work as I have been. A good job is really a blessing, and you have reminded me of this Lola.

I resent the company that employs the temps more than the one that supplies them. They're the ones not making me permanent.

And I think Lola's the greatest.

I'm just saying, is all.

So, can we say that there are recruiters that suck, and recruiters that rock, and temps that suck and temps that rock?

And that everyone who posts on MeCha, by default, rocks?

I personally work with lawyers (the biggest assholes in town)...

Hey, I resemble that remark!

I do not WANT to be exposed to anus!

Well! I can tell when I'm not welcome.

Goddamn temps.
Goddamn agencies.
Goddamn clients.

Everyone knows that the system is broken, and we expect bad outcomes. Then, sometimes it all comes together and you get a good match.

Life.

Congrats on your retirement, mcgraw. Hope it's as restful or exciting as you want it to be.

Lola_G, you're not hearing from all of us who've had good experiences with temp agencies because we don't want to harsh the bitch fest. But we exist. The hubby and I both happily did temp work out of school. In fact, that's how mr. rossi got his job. Now he's a bigshot business man.

And dame, I can tell you're wound extra tight today. If I lived closer, I'd stop by with a bottle of wine and some dinner and we could stay up all night discussing the suckitude of mortal existence. Then tomorrow, I'd build you a snowman and let you destroy it with a baseball bat.

Sturgeon's Law. 90% of recruiters are idiots. Let us assume Lola is in the top 10% (I've met some great recruiters so I know they do exist, but they are rather thin on the ground). Also 90% of temps are idiots. Those who post here are in the top 10%. Problem solved.

aw shit, jrossi4r. sorry for lying like that. i was full of shit just then-- i'm nowhere near retirement age, and i thought my ridiculous antics on this site would make my phony story obviously untrue. so i'm going to go apply some salve to my bunion-ridden, gout afflicted aged feet and check in on the AARP site. again, sorry for my bullshit story. i didn't think anyone would believe i'm 65.

and it was very nice of you to wish me a happy retirement.

*takes another ritalin*

Sorry. Just had to take a call from a crying friend.

I appreciate the good sentiments. The point is, we are all just trying to get by. At least I am. I can't leave this job -- which sucks my spirit daily -- because the bills don't stop coming and the rent needs to get paid. I've never received one bit of help from my parents since I turned 18 and I'm not bitter but unless I can find something to do that pays the bills -- I'm stuck.

This law degree completely anchors me because no one believes I truly want to do anything else. No one, except legal staffing firms.

Sweet.

But we don't all suck. I have more loyalty for my candidates than I do for this company. So, it stings when they are ingrates!

I like your reasoning, matildaben!

And if I can ever help anybody...I am happy too!

Thanks, jrossi. I have decided to try to help myself.

I'm with dame on this. I woke up this morning in a cold house, out of heating oil, emptied my bank account to get the minimum delivery of oil.

Haven't seen an on-time or full amount paycheck for over a year.

grrrrrrrr.

Bitch away Lola. You got paid, right?

≡ Click to see image ≡

Lola, all I can say is: you can be my recruiter anytime. :)

Tsk, mcgraw! My bad for not knowing better. Save all my good wishes for the day you do eventually retire.

Oh you are all a bunch of whiners, try having to do all your recruiting out of the classifieds section of Solider of Fortune. If I have to ask one more shavenheaded roid-addict wannabee with a fake Afrikaans accent "what's the color of the boathouse at Hereford?" again today, I am going to shoot someone with this sten gun Mary left propped against the watercooler for the last week even though I told her to take it home right away.

I left a contract position with IBM's AIX division after only six weeks to take a job at Vignette. Vignette recruited me relentlessly, but I wanted to stay and at least finish my contract term. The thing was, though, I was attached to three(!) different groups, no one could explain most of my job or even knew my job title, my putative manager had no time to train me for what amounted to at least 1/3 of my responsibilities and where I was most needed (and most of what that group did was ad hoc and there were no alternatives for training), and so I had very little to do and I browsed the web more than I ever had, or have since, while working. And it was fun for the first two weeks or so to be paid to no nothing. Then it got boring and frustrating.

Finally, I asked my manager when he would get around to explaining to me that big portion of my job. This was late November. He said probably February. Uh-huh. And Vignette kept calling me and offering me a big jump in pay. So I took the Vignette job.

I felt bad about it because the manager was a nice guy, though overworked. The agency and recruiter were nice, too. The IBM guy was freaked out, I think he got some heat for it, and they counter-offered a big raise. But the doing nothing and bureaucracy at IBM was driving me nuts.

And a good thing, too, because I was hired at Vignette three months prior to their IPO and my option grant eventually became worth as much as 2.5 million, though of course I only managed to realize a portion of that—still a large amount.

I've always strangely felt bad about leaving the IBM guy in the lurch. And I assumed I wouldn't be able to contract with IBM again.

It's okay if you leave. It is after all a "temp job". The thing is, most new employers understand that there is a professional courtesy in giving your current employer notice.

The guy I had walked off the job in the middle of the day to go to another place. Decided he liked my team better and went back. The client. Was. NOT. Happy.

Then I gotta here about it. Pay the guy but not bill the client and with all the competitors in the market we make nothing on this.

The other misconception is that we make so much money off of temps. Well, the man might but I'm on salary NOT COMMISSION.

I was 100% commission at one time and it ain't what people think. Not worth the work. And firing people for no reason. Lovely at will employment.

Yeah. It sucks.

I'm not a temp and have no intention of temping or contracting.

* dodgygeezer contracts *

Oooooh, that felt weird.

Anyway...

I went out with a girl who, like you Lola, dealt with temps and she worked bloody hard. She was on the phone virtually all day - even at home trying to get last minute subs. And she'd spend half her Saturdays training the clueless on Word and such like. Of course now she's probably richer than Bill Gates, but hey, I guess she's worked hard for it.

If I have to ask one more shavenheaded roid-addict wannabee with a fake Afrikaans accent "what's the color of the boathouse at Hereford?" again today

Oh well then.

*packs up bazooka and goes home*

Today I didn't make any money. But I took pictures of the ducks in the snow. Which was fun and neat and stuff. I'm not sure why I am in this thread actually. *looks around scared and confused*

Hell, I have a semi-decent paying, if tedious and unfulfilling, job and I'm still hoping the company goes under and I get laid off. But I don't hold out much hope of getting some kind of dream job like radio disk jockey or columnist. One because paying jobs like that don't exist anymore, and two, because (and this was the hardest lesson of adulthood) I don't have what it takes. I'm a functionary, not a mover or a shaker or a creator. And I'm OK with that, I guess.

By the way, I don't like the work I do, and I'm not particularly suited to it. It doesn't suck terribly, and the black hole of silence I call a temp agency isn't the worst part of it.

I do this work because I can, and because I get paid okay. I follow my muse outside of work. I don't labor under the delusion that I should do something I like for a living. The money I make doing things I don't like pays for me to follow my muse after the whistle blows for quittin' time.

I would sniff asses if it paid well, or jack off orangutans (though they were perfectly capable of doing it themselves last time I was at the zoo), or scoop shit up in my hands and fling it at the wall... I think you catch my drift.

I don't think this adds much to the discussion. I'm in the situation I'm in because I put myself here. If it was untenable, I'd quit, like fenriq did (good on ya, mon).

I can't wait to get out of here tonight, grab my sten and up the Empire! Huzzah, - !

Yeah hugh.

Lola G - there's nothing that could happen now that could ever convince me that temp agencies are legit anymore. I worked six days in January, and I'm registered with a dozen agencies in Seattle. SIX DAYS.

Just yesterday one of them had the sack to LECTURE me about not taking a two-day, 10.00/hr. reception job on Monday because I said I was starting fulltime work that day. They even suggested I put off the start date by 2 weeks so I could work for them longer.

What the Fuck Ever. Temp Agencies are for shit. If you believed half of what you tell the candidates about how great they are, or how great the jobs were, your heads would explode.

Am I bitter? Yes. Am I overqualified? Yes. But I ask you this: when was the last damn time you worked six days in a fucking month, and then were lectured at on top of it when you finally got hired somewhere?

It's bullshit. This isn't meant as a personal attack on you by any means, but I can't defend the temp industry at all anymore. It's crap from the ground up.