Posted on 05/25/2006 by the cynic
Viewed: 438 times
I wrote a story about a job where I temped for part of a year until my contract was up. Well, at that job there were some gossippy 60-year-old ladies who used to love whispering about everybody and starting malicious rumors. (rumors that another temp was staying overtime just to steal money from the firm, even though she was doing THEIR work; nasty personal rumors about a gay worker, etc.).
They especially liked to pick on temps, since a) we leave after so many months, and b) they assume we're all undereducated oafs who can't get a "real job" like they can.
So eventually they decided to start in on me--why wouldn't they, I'm not that special to get out of it! I have naturally dry eyes, and at the time was wearing those rigid contacts that can really make your eyes red in bad-quality air. The office was undergoing "air-quality testing" because so many folks were getting sick. I wasn't sick, but I had bloodshot eyes a lot due to the lenses.
So what do they do? They start telling everyone I have a drug addiction problem, and have red eyes because I smoke a pole before work and drink during lunch. Ridiculous since the company does drug testing anyway, and I had tested negative in order to work there.
My friend told me about the rumors, and I told her that my high-school classmates who called me "goody goody" would have a heyday with this one, because I'm known for being quite straight-laced (no drugs, quiet, drink only moderately, etc.).
They even tried bringing it to management level, but the manager simply looked at my drug test, asked me casually why my eyes were red, and said, "Oh, ok." when I told her. Phew!
POST A COMMENTthe cynic(05/26/2006)
Yeah, the company I'm at now hires only temps now, except in areas like sales and trading, where there are commissions involved which can't be paid by an agency. The thing is, in NYC we really aren't that cheap! I make a decent living wage working as a full-time "permatemp," and I'm actually getting paid much less per hour than the company is paying for, since the agency gets a kickback (therefore, for instance, $23/hour for me really = $30/hour the company has to pay for me). I think they're trying to save by cheating us out of health benefits, which makes me thank God I'm married to someone with a permanent job. Single folks or those married to people with minimum-wage or other hourly jobs are virtually screwed by this system.
JobSchmobber Community Comments
C - - (05/25/2006)
This is fear and job insecurity running amok. It's not personal but it effects you directly; temps and part timers are now crowding out full time workers in some industries. They can't demand benefits, have little or no job protection and are a cheap and willing work force.
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