How I Got the Sack

For real, bluds, NO FUCKING ILX FOR THREE WEEKS. Result: £76 phone bill. Nora. The company produced books for modellers and military obsessives: 'FA 18 Hornets of Operation Iraqi Freedom' was one recent title. Bogs had a big print of a German half-track by the basins. It excorcised my inner Airfix-modeller, anyway. However, it *still* attracted some outwardly bright 'people who want to get into publishing'. Memo to anyone who listens: don't try it!

matt is right. but only because it's really true that smart people can work themselves out of a job when temping. which is stupid.

And if you can do the work more quickly it is obviously advantageous for the company because you take up fewer hours and consequently can be paid less.

It's like that and that's the way it is. People who don't like it - go get a permanent job!

x-post

In theory, you are exchanging your employment rights (job security, holidays, notice period, sickness benefit, other) for an improved payment. (Don't laugh).

And much as it pains me ghorribly to say it, Marcello speaks a bit of sense.

Being a temp is basically the fag end of the employment food chain.

Some employers treated me well as a temp, others didn't. I don't mind about the status of temping at all, it's actually my preferred MO (don't take work homw with you).

I obviously admit that he did nothing wrong as per the rules. The legally-minded will of course see that as the be-all end-all.

But gosh darn if those value-judgements don't creep in in the last instance viz: you are basically favouring a more brutal way of life based on contract-determined human contacts. Which is to my way of thinking sad, but you're totally entitled to it and, you know, sauve qui peut I guess.

It's disingenuous to say a temp could leave an assignment on two hours' notice. Yeah, and if the assignment had some time to go the agency would never use that temp again. Not exactly like-for-like, is it?

Also isn't the employer a temp is assigned to meant to notify the AGENCY and not the worker when it's over whether it's a wuss-out or a sacking? Damn stupid office manager could get in a heap of trouble for mailing you directly.

Yeah -- that just hasn't been my experience. Obv MC is older than me, but I have been at it for a few years. I know it wasn't 'the sack', but I wanted a snappy title. I've always been given fair warning -- this kicker here was that I had a verbal agreement to do four weeks, and it was terminated at three, with a few hours' notice.

In theory, of course.

All those commissions? All that contract tendering?

In practice?

I don't think so.

As I said, any temp contract can be terminated without any notice given, for virtually any reason. It says so in the contract which you sign when you register with any agency.

The only two things these companies are truly scared of are Experian and the press.

Also it would depend on how big the client is. There's one agency I know of who had Enron on their books and knew full well that Enron were (a) crooks and (b) treating their temps like human offal, but nevertheless they were shit scared to do anything about it because Enron kept saying to them, menacingly: "Well, **** never had a problem with us and their contract was cheaper."

I don't have much time for people who collude with the whole 'might equals right' thing by saying 'tough luck, that's just the way it goes'.

Marcello, you've just given me all the proof I need that agency bosses are thick as pigshit. If Enron were on the phone using 'X was cheaper' menaces my first question would be 'Is that so? What possible advantage does telling me that actually give you?'

I think that's lazy, journalist.

Marcello, if you're some kind of senior manager are you not in effect someone who can bring cool working practices to your neck of the woods? And if so, why persist in condoning the complacency of other companies just because people in management were shitty to you?

Coming next - all politicians are cunts, so lets cede power to the meejar or global politicians.

xpost - I see your point Dave. And everyone does this, and we all turn out to be on the make, out for what we can get. I think we're worth better and more than that, and the moment my life comes a big fiddle with the bosses I'll shoot myself.

It sucks for him, but unless his agency had negotiated it as a contractor type project, with a sum for the work, then there's nothing he can do. If I'd been the employer and estimated a budget for that task and it had come under budget because he'd finished quickly, then I'd have looked around the office to see if there was another task he could have worked on for a week, but I definitely wouldn't have given him the week as gardening leave. (but I wouldn't have written that email, and if there'd been an after work drink then I'd definitely have invited him along)

did he actaully type

we are now back up to date, so> ...> WE WON> '> t be requiring your excellent services...

cos that sounds like he's really rubbing it in

The stuff about better pay is bullshit though. my last job i went from being temp to permanent and suddenly my income increased. but it depends on the hours you do of course.

My temp experiences have always been pretty decent tho', and holiday pay is sometimes part of the deal. Worst experience, and it was kind of tame as it was after the fact, was discovering I was meant to be kept on at a job, but was laid off for hanging out with the receptionist too often (now a good mentalist buddy). My agency actually rang me up to confirm I had another week, but the lady I worked for/with quickly shot it down (and promptly let me go). It took the now ex-receptionist a year to tell me this though, but whatever.

They tried to hire one Jeffrey Dahmer-looking motherfucker to replace me as a temp with an open-ended. He was here two days and they called and said, "Sorry, it's not working out." Poor guy (he really was v. slow though).

Some people (including me) are temping because right now we cannot get a regular job with those benefits.

it's really true that smart people can work themselves out of a job when temping. which is stupid.

That has happened to me. On the other hand, at some workplaces they've said "As long as we've got a temp in, can she do...?" and then "Can she come back tomorrow and do...?" which gets my assignment extended.

Also, doing the work quickly is sometimes not as much about the temp being smart as it is about the work being so boring that you don't want to look at it any longer than necessary.

I'll go back the agency, whose response was nil first time round. It's hard to say whether I had a task to complete, and was paid for that--it's not very clear-cut. As with most publishing work, it was on-going, ie picture rights have to be checked off every week, artwork (massive panoramas of Operation Epsom around Caen 1944, that sort of thing) processed. Most amusingly I had to do the honours with the rejection letters (done from incredibly poorly phrased templates) to people pitching savoury-sounding books like 'Uniforms of Concentration Camp Guards 1943-4'. I wasn't really on a project, but you never know. Anyway, what do I give a fuck for, it's all gravy now.

It never came to the 'Crime de Monsieur Lange' ending.