Days of My (Temporary) Life, weeks 1&2

Sweet readers, you probably won’t want to bother to read this post, as it is mostly a “Dear Diary”/journal type entry primarily meant to document the last few weeks at my current assignment before I forget it all. Very long, and very boring, to anyone but me, really. Not to mention how terrible it all is, switching tenses every other sentence!!!

March 31, 2008: Monday, week one
This assignment is way out on the edge of nowhere. I have, quite literally, never driven on the expressway as far as the needed exit. Am seriously starting to wonder if the low pay I’ll earn for the two weeks of filing is worth it, considering how ridiculously high gasoline prices are.

Met the boss, a woman named Karol (names changed to protect myself, as none of these people are innocent!). Met the other A/P person, a young woman named Andrea. And there was one other poor unfortunate, a financial temporary employee named Joanne.

Quickly discovered that Supervisor Karol has absolutely zero patience with Joanne. Despite the fact that Joanne is old enough to be Karol’s mother, Karol talks to her as if she is a child. No, I take that back; I wouldn’t speak to a child this way! Very scathing, very condescending, and showing no patience at all. Am very glad that I’ll be half a building away, working in “my” solitary fileroom.

April 1-4, rest of week one
Spent at least half of each day OUT of the fileroom, accomplishing nothing at all. There are issues with the computer in my theoretical cubicle, and I have to be on hand as the computer tech works on it so I can repeatedly try to sign on and log in to various things.

Felt very frustrated, as I am getting next to nothing done. Kept wondering two things: one, why can’t the tech log in using his own identity to see if the programs are loaded correctly? Is it really necessary to keep me standing—yes, standing, as there are no extra chairs anywhere around here—for hours while he works? And two, why is it so freakin’ important for me to have full computer access? I’m here for two weeks, filing, and then I’m out of here, suckers.

Karol stinks. She actually stinks, as in a bad smell. I can’t figure out what it is. It isn’t funk, like someone who didn’t shower. It isn’t pee or feces, or anything like that. It isn’t that weird mildew odor I’ve smelled on some people when they have super-thick hair, and don’t dry it completely (and it stays vaguely damp and gross all day and evening). I have no idea what is causing her odor. I found out she’s a dog person, and wonder if it has something to do with that. But you know, I’ve been around plenty of crazy dog & cat people, and have never smelled anything like this before.
At first I thought it was just my imagination, because surely no one could smell that bad and not know it. But the other temp made it clear in our private conversations that yes, Karol does reek. I nearly gagged one day when she stood too close to me for several minutes in conversation.

April 7-10, week two
The denigrating behavior continues towards Temp Joanne. Karol’s mouth is really something. She’s one of those people who just doesn’t know how to talk to people, you know? I don’t see how Joanne takes it. I would’ve told her off ages ago if she’d been talking to me like that. I know that we all have to suck it up sometimes on the job, and take crap we’d rather not, but Karol is really beyond the pale.

Oddly enough, except for one comment last week, I don’t get any lip or attitude from Karol. I’d asked her if she could help me with a question I had. She snarkily said, “No,” very flatly. I just shrugged, and said I could just go back and do my work in the fileroom, then, instead of this special thing she’d asked me to do. I think I shocked her, just calmly stating what I was going to do. She kinda sniffed, and mumbled something about me having a lot of lip, especially for a temp. But you know what? I haven’t had a real problem with her since. Still, I’m sincerely looking forward to the end of this assignment.

I found out that Karol just got promoted to the supervisor position about a month or two ago. I tried to take that into account, that maybe she’s nervous and uncertain about her new job, but that still doesn’t excuse the way she talks to people.

April 11, Friday of week two
Karol ambushed me at the coffee machine at approximately 8:03am, while I was fixing my first cup. She came right out and told me that temp Joanne wasn’t working out, and that she was going to let Joanne go. Then she asked me if I’d be interested in staying on to take Jo’s place, and learning accounts payable.

I was completely taken aback for so many reasons. First of all, I hadn’t had a single sip of black nectar, and I don’t function well without a tiny bit of caffeine. Second, the few pistons that were firing in my brain were appalled that she was being un professional enough to tell me—a temp—that she was dismissing an employee, to see if I’d be interested in her position. Third, I absolutely, positively, did not want to work for this woman, and my poor brain was at a loss for a way to refuse. I finally came up with, “Um, I have to talk to my agency,” and escaped as fast as I could to my hidey hole (the fileroom).

Well, she didn’t wait to get further word from me. She just went right ahead and told the head of HR that she wanted to keep me on, and asked HR to talk to my agency. When she told me that, I was like WTF?!?!?!?

So I hurriedly went to talk to my agent on a break to give her a heads up about the situation. That I did NOT want to work closely with Karol, not the way I’d have to as an A/P person. I had been fine working in the fileroom, but would be driven mad if I had to have constant contact, being in the next cubicle over. My agent assured me that she would take care of the situation, and I didn’t have to worry my pretty little head about it.

Of course, I couldn’t leave it at that. I decided to nip everything in the bud as soon as I got back to the office. I calmly and quietly told Karol that I didn’t feel comfortable taking an A/P job since I had practically no experience in that area. The accounts payable that I’d done on a previous job was such a different process that it really didn’t count at all. Karol accepted it, saying that it wasn’t going to hurt her feelings if I didn’t want to do A/P.

But then, just to add another twist to the story, Karol offered me a third week of fileroom work. Even though I’d finished up my two weeks and assigned tasks, she had more she wanted done. I felt weird about it, but Mama needs a new pair of shoes (so to speak) so I accepted the assignment.

The rest of the day was surreal. I interacted with Temp Joanne, with whom I’d developed a great rapport over two weeks, knowing all along that she was going to let go. The part of me that is subconsciously involved in the Black Conspiracy urged me to tell her, or at least hint, that her job was ending. The part of me that insists on keeping to certain codes of professional behavior even when others around me are not, urged me to keep my mouth shut and stay out of the whole situation.

The universe decided to take pity on me, and gave me an out. I overheard conversations of Karol’s where she was speaking to someone, in despair about the resumes she’d looked over. Apparently, even though they had been using temps in the A/P position, they were advertising inside the company for someone to take on the job as regular/full time, and she hadn’t really cared much for the applicants she’d been presented with so far.

Then Joanne came to the fileroom to talk to me; she needed to vent, bigtime. She told me about the latest fracas, and how she was having a hard time Remaining Christian and keeping quiet and meek, when Karol spoke so badly to her. She then confided that she’d called her agency that afternoon, asking that they start looking for another assignment because she wasn’t going to be able to take Karol much longer.

And that was when it all came together: a way to give a bit of warning to a fellow temp, without (fully) compromising myself. I casually said that it was probably good timing on her part, as I’d overheard how “They” were about to hire someone permanently for the position. I felt so much better. I’d managed at least a little warning, without telling her she wouldn’t be there much longer. TGIF.