The Revolving Door
I was working as the program assistant for a small, non-profit company in upstate New York. We had a temp agency we used to staff our reception position, and it was like a revolving door. In the year I worked in this company, we had seven temps at our front desk. They ranged from inappropriate dress to filing unfinished work to calling in sick every single Thursday. One even painted her toenails at her desk. It was the office joke – we wouldn’t even learn their name before there’d be a new face at the desk. It was very stressful and demotivating for all of us in the office.
August 5th, 2008 at 2:28 am
I have to wonder what the other side of this situation is, and what your temps’ experiences have been, as workers in your office. I mean, 7 temps in a row were that horrible–SEVEN?? That doesn’t seem entirely likely, or don’t you think? Consider my own experiences as a temp, working in offices with your “revolving door” history: At each of the assignments I have had where I’d find this situation, I discovered a ganging up on temps by certain “perm” employees. At some assignments I have found quite nasty employees (I must also admit to you that each time, the problem has been other women–not men) who have done their best to trash talk, spread rumors, make false complaints, and even remove work from temp’s desks and destroy it, erasing or altering files from temps’ work computers, making calls from temps’ phones, placing objects (even living things!) in temps’ purses, etc, ETC. I cannot even say that the bad blood usually stemmed from personality differences or conflict. It didn’t. It was usually not instigated at all, unless you consider a lazy worker’s jealousy over a faster, more efficient, or even more physically appealing worker entering the other’s stomping grounds. And in this economy, such threat is at epidemic levels. And while all of the activities I mentioned are hurtful enough to send an honest worker home crying, recalling her most unpleasant adolescence memories, the most cruel is, perhaps, the false and unfair representation made with the upper management of these companies, and the consequences that these temps often face in attempting to defend their work ethic, office activities, and ultimately, livelihoods. I think the possibility of harming another human being undeservedly is a good enough reason to ensure that this is NOT happening in your office. If that many temps are heading out that door, before any of you or your coworkers HAVE actually spent time “learning their names,” I’d say that it is a clear sign that not enough effort is being made to make any of them feel respected as human beings or welcome into your environment. Please keep in mind that these people are working for your company, just like the rest of you. They deserve respect and a safe work atmosphere, just as you do. It is also not very likely that so many of them would be taking a job for granted that they might possibly be interested in keeping. It MAY be likely, though, that others on that floor might, and might risk it all to fight tooth and nail to defend what they’ve got because they perceive that new face as a possible threat. I am not saying this is necessarily all happening in your office, but these memories do jump to mind at your story–specially with your account of the 7 different temps, the revolving door, and the fact that it IS felt as a ‘joke,’ by you and your peers, that they might leave without ever having received so much as a “Hey, Good morning, Susan!”