4.23.2008

temp this

well, this is a post from the bowels of unemployment- the temp job. yay! aren't you excited? i know i am!

you see, the magic of the temp job is that you can't do SHIT. you just can't. you don't know who or where anything is. you don't know who's responsible for what, yourself included, and you just won't have time to figure it out. long term temping is probably easier, but then you're trapped there! at least you can get out of damn near anything just by saying, "i'm sorry, i don't really know. i'm a temp."

most people are understanding, and these kinds of temp job are primarily low demand types- answer the phone and take messages or transfer calls, file things alphabetically, take dictation and type, etc.. however, there needs to be a disclaimer attached to being or having a temp- when a temp's reply to a question is the above mentioned, "i'm sorry, i don't really know, i'm a temp," that does NOT mean he/she is an idiot. and it certainly doesn't give anyone leeway to treat the temp as such. it also doesn't mean you can make up menial things to try to get the temp to do something- jeez!

i just believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt. truth is- the people here have no idea how well educated i am or what i've done with my life so far. some choose to treat me like an idiot, some choose to treat me nicely. i'm sure it's more of a comment on them than on me, and as my mother would say, 'remember this when you are in the other person's position.'

and at least when i went to the bookstore to buy a crossword puzzle, they had a whole book of 'em for $1.99 on the first discount shelf right next to the door. Gear!

but it is, indeed, a practice in humility. maybe that's what this whole mess is all about, and all i needed was some humble pie (if so, i got a HUGE piece today.)


xoxox

5 comments:

Mr. James said...

Gear? What about groovy? BTW, the 70s called and want their words back. JoKing, Fave. I myself said "cosmic" (after R. Crumb's Mr. Natural) decades after the 60s passed away.
Hey, I still tell people, "Dunno. I'm a temp." Even my boss. He doesn't know the diff!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mode. said...

oops.

if it works, it works. and i don't! haha.

gear is making a comeback. Roo and i are seeing to that.

and since when are you a woman? cute pic, though...



xoxox

Mr. James said...

Who Roo? Kanga?

"You're always a woman to me." -Wm. Jos. Martin Joel

mode. said...

Roo rules. everything else is just details. Kanga's fun, too.


xoxox