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Originally posted by El Tee:
I hated being a temp…I was left out of meetings…

And this is bad, how? (I don't like meeting so much :) )

That's pretty shitty. If it was a two-year gig, you should have negotiated with the employer – they were paying the temp agency enough to have covered your salary plus some essential benefits directly to you. Yeah, they have to buy you out, but that's done all the time.

Were you working 40-hour weeks? If it's less than 20-hours, that can mean you're not eligible for benefits (which is often true at a company, not just a temp agency, as well).

Originally posted by Friend of Guy Balls:
I was never given any of those benefits, even in the temp job I stayed at for 2 years while in grad school.

Originally posted by Bags:


AND, if I had stayed with the temp agency for a matter of months, I'd get health insurance, earn paid vacation and become eligible to sign up for 401K options (without matching, though, I think).

Originally posted by Friend of Guy Balls:
Do you give them health insurance? Paid vacation? 401K options?

I started by working 40 hours weeks, but decreased to 24-32 by my own choice. I don't think the market was such that i would have been able to negotiate.

Originally posted by Bags:
That's pretty shitty. If it was a two-year gig, you should have negotiated with the employer – they were paying the temp agency enough to have covered your salary plus some essential benefits directly to you. Yeah, they have to buy you out, but that's done all the time.

Were you working 40-hour weeks? If it's less than 20-hours, that can mean you're not eligible for benefits (which is often true at a company, not just a temp agency, as well).

Originally posted by Friend of Guy Balls:
I was never given any of those benefits, even in the temp job I stayed at for 2 years while in grad school.

Originally posted by Bags:


AND, if I had stayed with the temp agency for a matter of months, I'd get health insurance, earn paid vacation and become eligible to sign up for 401K options (without matching, though, I think).

Originally posted by Friend of Guy Balls:
Do you give them health insurance? Paid vacation? 401K options?

What is the advantage of temping?

I mean, there are plenty of shitty jobs out there that one could have full-time. So, if all the temp jobs are shit and have no benefits, wouldn't it make sense to take a FT position somewhere so you could have bennies with your shit?

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
What is the advantage of temping?

I temped when I was looking for a job, so that if I set up an interview, I could take any day off from temping that I needed. In other words, I could work the temp schedule around my needs, not vice versa.

I'd assume for a student it would be similar; if you have a paper due or a test coming up, you can say "I"m not working tomorrow or Friday…"

I'm going to preface this with the idea that if companies gave a damn about what temps they hired, perhaps they'd get better quality work out of them. Similarly, they would expect more out of the temps.

You are correct, but I hesitate to call what you describe "benefits". Sure, I don't have to go into work everyday. I don't have to work that hard, and on downtime I sneak around on the forum. But the downside is that I don't know anyone at any of the offices, pretty much everyday is your first day, and people don't expect anything from you. And finally, being referred to as "the Temp" is downright insulting.

As I stated earlier, how you treat people that Temp for you is commendable. Showing someone the bigger picture allows them the opportunity to actually know what the hell they're aiming to accomplish.

Okay, that's all for my rant. I'm pretty sure I haven't complained about this before, so I'll leave it at this.

Originally posted by Ball Girl:
what I *said* doesn't screw temps over…it's just the fact of the marketplace…a business will hire a temp ususually because they don't have enough work to justify the cost of having another full-time employee receiving benefits on their books…my comments were meant to highlight some up-sides to being a temp…basically a company should not expect that a temp would be highly committed to their projects or feel really invested in the work…if the temp *is* that speaks well for them

you'll like this one, too…I even set up the network password for temps to be "tempsrule"…

It brings a tear to the eye, it does.

Originally posted by Ball Girl:

Originally posted by El Tee:
I hated being a temp…I was left out of meetings…

And this is bad, how? (I don't like meeting so much :) )

I hear ya ;) …but I suppose I meant something similar to Thirsty's comments…being a part of the meetings helps set the bigger picture. It's an opportunity to be included in the work. Some of the discussions or decisions in meetings are the projects that you end up working on.
Aw heck, who am I kidding. I hate meetings. But at the time, I was so bored as a temp and no one talked to me, I'd do anything.
ggw's question - for me I couldn't find a full-time job, so I had to take what I could get. I looked for temp jobs in my field, and there were "promises" that it would become permanent.

sometimes temp jobs can lead to real jobs

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
sometimes temp jobs can lead to real jobs

I agree. That's one reason why I took it. I found out after it would never be the case. They should let temps talk to full-time employees before they take the job. ;)

El Tee, check your PM!

Originally posted by thirsty moore:
El Tee, check your PM!

Roger.
Check your email.