Temp World

by Margie M. Mitchell

part 1

In the Autumn of 2001, my life circumstances were affected by a sudden financial loss. The need for immediate income, how long I didn't know, led me to temporary employment, a culture unto itself that was easy to enter, and even easier to get lost in.

At random, I picked a temporary employment agency from the want-ads in my local newspaper. The day after I placed a call, I was interviewed. Three days later, on a Friday, I received a call from the recruiter who had interviewed me. She said the temp agency had located a job placement for me at a local hospital. My job, as clerical support staff in the Mammography Department, was scheduled to begin the following Monday.

As I had been instructed to do, I reported to the Human Resources Department at 8:45AM on my start date. After my picture was taken for a photo ID badge, I was asked to take a seat in the corridor beyond Human Resources. Ten minutes later, the supervisor of the Mammography Department greeted me, and we meandered our way downstairs to the Radiology Department. While en route, she provided me with a quick overview of the 30-hour-a-week position I was about to begin.

For approximately six months, I worked as a temporary support staff in the hospital, without benefits of any kind, and toted a near perfect record of attendance. At this point in my employ, there were changes occurring within the Radiology Department. One of the changes was that my direct supervisor up until this time was scheduled to retire, and one of the mammography technicians within the department was slotted to take the helm.

My assignment at the hospital had been fairly smooth up until this point. I had encountered few problems. However, shortly after the supervisory change in the Mammography Department, the work environment changed. The atmosphere made it difficult to do my job, and every mistake, large and small, was highlighted for all to see.

Unsure over how to handle the situation, I called the temp agency to inform them of the changing work environment and to seek their advice. I was told they would look into the matter. I do not recall there being a directive for me to follow up with the temp agency. However, the recruiter handling the complaint told me she didn't want me "blowing out of there," and asked me, "Can you ignore what's going on?" I told her I would do my best, but made no promises.

When I went into work the next day, the increasingly turbulent environment had not changed for the better, but things were no worse either. Ironically, during this same week, my partner of nine years was diagnosed with breast cancer.

These circumstances shifted my focus from keeping my head above the choppy work atmosphere to figuring out how to best handle my position as a temp in the very department where my partner was scheduled for a sentinel node biopsy the following week. Moreover, I really needed a day or two off to wrap my head around everything that was happening in my life personally.

After conferring with one of the mammography technicians, I called the head administrator of the Radiology Department to ask if she would be willing to meet with me. Several days later, we met in her office for a meeting that was short and shocking. When I had finished explaining the situation to her, she informed me that my assignment was over in two weeks. She said the temp agency was aware of this, and she assumed they already had informed me. Standing, she shook my hand, and wished me well.

I had no knowledge of this at the time, but the absence of "joint employer" liability in the temp industry runs rampant and, leaves the door wide open for employers to deny workers fringe benefits, and to avoid paying social security and other taxes. It also allows for the lack of a direct employment relationship to be drawn and used as a defense in claims brought against employers under worker protection laws.

On my lunch break this same day, I phoned the temp agency and provided them with the date of my last day, as it had been given to me a few hours earlier. Even though the temp agency supposedly already knew when my assignment was over, I was under a contractual agreement to keep them abreast of any changes in my assignment.

I completed my last two weeks at the hospital, and on my last day, someone in the medical records department told me the hospital was always looking for people to work per diem. She suggested I drop my resume off at Human Resources. Two days later, I delivered my resume, along with a cover letter expressing my interest in part-time or per diem work at the hospital. I never heard a peep from anyone.

In the hubbub of everything going on in my life, I didn't have time to sit down and go over all the fine print in my agreement with the temp agency. But I know now that the hospital couldn't have offered me a position, even if they had wanted to.

Typically, temp agencies charge their client companies--even their temps--a fee if the client chooses to take on a temp worker as an employee. These "conversion fees" reduce the likelihood that temp work will ever provide a path to permanent employment.

This particular temp agency required its clients to pay a conversion fee for any temp hired within six months from the end-date of an assignment. Financially, it would have made no sense for this company, or any other, with a few hundred employees in its charge, to pay a temp agency several hundred dollars to keep a person in a position that didn't require specialized skill.

The next two weeks were jammin' with my daily search for work, and in educating myself on chemotherapy and radiation treatment that my partner was preparing to undergo. During this time, the temp agency called to offer me a two-day assignment in a "low key office environment."

It did not occur to me to file for unemployment, as I had never done so before, and I appreciate the feeling of earning my money. However, the reality of contingent work is that temp employees have little or no control over, or knowledge of, the duration of any given job. Often, temps have difficulty qualifying for unemployment benefits between jobs, and the temp industry has lobbied aggressively for state laws that specifically deny unemployment compensation to temp workers who do not report to their temp agency at the completion of a job, and then fail to take any job offered to them by the temp agency.

After my two-day stint, I was perusing job postings in the newspaper and spotted an ad for immediate employment at a nearby manufacturing company. The ad had been placed by a nationally recognized temp firm. Their ad stated they were located at one of the hiring company's work sites. All shifts were available, the location was a mile from my new apartment, a paycheck was immediate, and the only advertised job requirement was three forms of identification.

My passport, a learner's permit, and birth certificate in hand, I applied in person. Once there, I was handed a lengthy application to fill out, and then it was a waiting game. An hour and a half passed, while I waited for the recruiter to return. The press of time was bearing down hard on a previously scheduled appointment. I explained to the receptionist that I could wait no longer. She left in search of the temp agency recruiter. When she came back several minutes later, she said he was no where to be found. I left my resume and completed application with her, and said I would follow up with a phone call later in the day, a Tuesday.

Mid-afternoon, I phoned the "company within the company" and requested the recruiter by name. We chatted briefly, and he said everything looked in order. I was told to report to work the following Monday morning at 9am. On Friday, the last weekday prior to my official "start date," I phoned the temporary employment agency and spoke with a different recruiter. She took my name and put me on hold while she checked "the list". The recruiter came back on the line several minutes later to tell me she had not seen my name on "the list", but after she had spoken with the recruiter on duty Tuesday, my name was now on it.

Monday morning rolled around. I and several others met with a different recruiter at one of four closely-knit sites belonging to the same company. The recruiter provided us with a brief orientation, handed out timecards, and gave us a quick spiel on the payroll process. Unaware of this at the time, I was about to join the ranks of "leased workers" , a subdivision of temporary employment. In contrast to general temp work, "leased workers" work for an intermediary leasing agency that handles payroll and benefits while the worker remains at the "client" work site. Leased work involves large herds of people who fill a particular job category for long periods of time. The pay, benefits, and job security of leased workers are typically inferior to those of permanent core workers. Like temp and subcontracted workers, leased workers are often employed by agencies with limited or no resources to compensate workers in the event of violations of labor laws.

My timecard in hand, I was teamed up with a "regular" employee, and mainstreamed into the factory by midmorning. I picked and packed product in this manufacturing plant for six months. My pay was $8.00 an hour, $2.00 less a hour than I was making at the hospital.

The conclusion of this article will appear in our next issue.