Monday, January 03, 2005

My New Attitude Problem

The Temp Agency Girl just called to lecture me. That's twice in two weeks that I've received a negative job review from a kid young enough to be my daughter. Well, really it's concerning the same job, so perhaps it only counts as one protracted criticism.
Turns out I 'forgot' to go to work this morning.Oops. I had wondered why the hell my alarm clock went off so early-now I know.

Temp Girl asks me why my attendance has become so bad.

Hmmm...

I take it you can pull up my work history.

Yes, right here.

Between January and October I averaged over 60 hours a week. How many days did I miss?

Uh, three.

I feel like screaming into the receiver -damnit! I'm burned-out! The recent assignments are so mind-numbing and hopeless that they make my frontal lobe pulse and throb painfully, like it's trying to escape through my eye-sockets.

It's not as if I'm a bad worker-far from it. I do great work, which generally allows me to get away with murder. But everyone has a point where they're doing something tedious and/or odious for such a low wage that quitting, meltdown or suicide become the only options. I even checked into joining the Peace Corps, but even they aren't desperate enough to have me.

Oh. Now I'm on work 'probation'. Big deal. I've had my life ransacked by Federal Probation Officers, I'm not worried about marks on my temporary/permanent folder.

There's silence-obviously intended for me to fill with an apology. Good luck for that.

I drop a fork on a ceramic plate. Ka-Klank!

Gotta go-the cat just made a mess.

I don't hear what she's saying as I hang-up. What's the worst they could do? Stop offering me $7.75/hr jobs?




4 comments:

Canopenner said...

Ive never done temp work.


Every visit to your blog reaffirms my belief that its shit.

Sorry they are such a bunch of wanks.

Allan said...

All jobs are Temp jobs. No one lives forever.
You're lucky you can poke fun at work and still get the work done. It makes things better for everyone.

farmer chica said...

I worked for a temp agency for a while several years back. I even worked at the temp agency itself. I remember noticing a little piece of paper taped to the desk of one of the Temp Agency Girls which had a numerical rating system for the physical appearance of temps. I think a "1" was someone who owned (and wore) really nice suits, and generally kissed butt better than anyone could even imagine. A "5" was someone who was definitely several notches below "office casual". (= Office scruffy?) I figure I was probably somewhere in the middle... clean and well dressed, but not corporate material. Which was fine with me as (like you) I was usually several notches smarter than most of the people I had to work for, and viewed the temp work as a means to put some food on my table.

The oddest job I had was working in the office of a fish distributor. The office was adjacent to the handling area and every day I went home smelling like fish, even though I didn't get anywhere near it. I worked there for a couple of weeks and my boss gave me some salmon to take home when I left. That was a good temp job (despite the fact that my husband wrinkled his nose when I came home every night from that job!)

Maybe it's time to sign up at a new temp agency?

Allan said...

Rating system, eh? I suspected as much. That's why I wore my suit when I went to the office and told them to take me off their roster. There's not enough free salmon in the world to put up with their crap.

My needs are modest, even if I'm not. I'll survive
until the next meteor hits or my unemployment runs out, whichever comes first.