Just a Temp?

The word that sums up New York is "achieve," says Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love. This is based on her Italian friend's theory that every city has one word that describes the thoughts of most of its inhabitants. (Rome's is sex, her friend says.) I think most busy, on-the-go New Yorkers would agree that achieve, a verb, describes us to a T. Is it possible to live in this city and step outside of achieve? These have been my thoughts ever since I left my job at the end of last summer and became a temp.

At 33, I have achieved quite a lot. I've had many successful jobs and worked my way up to increasingly fancier titles. I went from being an intern to having interns. I'm one of the founders of a nonprofit for girls and music, and I've achieved a healthy amount of satisfaction with my own music playing. When I became unemployed in August, I asked myself what I was doing back at a place I thought I had left behind in my early 20s -- the great unknown. Instead of feeling bad about it, as I did back then, I decided to flirt with "unachieve" for awhile, standing still, being no one in particular, doing nothing in particular that would define me during this period of growth and transition. I started to tell people I was "in between" and that has suited me surprisingly well.

I saved up some money to help with this in between period but that eventually ran out so I turned to what I did during those years after college, temping. Temping is a great way to get a paycheck quickly. It is also quite humbling, I discovered, for someone who has achieved a lot.

At my first temp assignment at a large international nonprofit I played the part of Executive Assistant to a senior VP. The phone rang and I answered it. I created telephone logs and learned to make labels on a nifty machine. For the first time in my life, I made coffee for two men. (Did I mention I have a Masters in Women's and Gender Studies?) I also ordered a meatloaf sandwich for my boss and brought him a fork. He thanked me kindly as if I was doing him a favor. Suddenly I had a new identity -- the temp, and I began to question what that meant.

One morning checking in at the security desk downstairs, one guard said to another, "She's just a temp," meaning I wouldn't need a long-term security pass. "Just a temp?" I thought. Clearly I am not just a temp, but then what am I? I didn't see myself as a writer, actor or performer who had an alternative identity and was just temping to make money. This is what I did at the moment. Did that mean it was who I am?

At my next assignment inside corporate America I had the opportunity to explore this further. I was given a new identity complete with a photo ID of myself with the MetLife Building in the background. The woman I was filling in for trained me for a day before her vacation, and left me in tears of dread about the grey office I would return to for two weeks. Her boss, now my boss, was a handful. Suzanne fax this, Suzanne re-do these envelopes, Suzanne do you mind taking these diet Coke cans to the kitchen? He piled on the work and treated me as if I had been there for years, and would continue to be there for years at his beck and call. Didn't he know this was me not achieving but being in between?

An office voodoo doll stared out at me those two weeks from its box on my desk, a gift from a co-worker to the woman whose desk I sat at. I opened it once and felt guilty about even contemplating its application but it somehow brought me comfort. So did the looks of sympathy I received when I told friendly people in the kitchen who I worked for.

I survived this job by not thinking too far ahead, and by appreciating the little things -- the 3pm snacks, for example, that were put out in the kitchen. Fruit and chips or granola bars every day of the week except Friday when there was no fruit, as if that was a special treat.

What is great about temping is that you gain a glimpse of someone else's life at someone else's desk. You get to be someone else for one week or three weeks, and then just in time when you've had enough, they return and you get to be you again. (I have never had more respect for secretaries, administrative assistants and executive assistants than when I did these temp assignments.) Right now I have a fulfilling long-term temporary position that is 3 days/week and allows me the freedom to try out a new persona but break away from that 2 days/week to just be me again.

So I would say, yes, it's possible to step outside of achieve for awhile in this city. People don't really know what to make of you -- they want to classify, label, categorize you -- but if you don't classify, label or categorize yourself, then they will never quite know how to make sense of you. It's fun.

Over these past few months I learned that not only am I not just a temp, I'm also not just the jobs with the fancy titles I've had or will have. I can leave those behind at a moment's notice and still be content with who I am. Similarly, if we define ourselves only by what we are achieving, we set ourselves up for disappointment or dissatisfaction with the moments of life when we are just being.

I think that it would be nice if New Yorkers collectively stood still briefly once in awhile. Perhaps each day at say, 3 p.m. We could shut off our cell phones, blackberries and email, drink a cup of tea, stare out the window and just be for a moment. No need to worry, achieve will be there waiting for us a moment later.

Comments

[ThursdayNext]

I've had the same experiences as a temp, not treated as an equal anything. One place had a firm "no food for temps" rule even though there was plenty left over and it was just sitting in the refrigerator rotting. It's been over two months since my last assignment, I've been out on two interviews who found me "delightful" but went with someone else. As for godot18's comment about versatility, I have the same issue. I can be someone's "go-to gal" for loads of things but never get the chance for whatever reason. The rewards I once found as a temp have now become liabilities for me. Time off means no pay, trying on jobs for possible hire usually means keeping the chair warm for the person they're looking to hire which isn't me. It also means that no matter how much honesty and integrity I have, I don't have to be treated the same way, because I'm "just a temp." Thank goodness I have others interests and passions or I would have crawled under the blankets long ago.

[Godot18]

I, too, am a temp, and I used to proudly talk about how it gave me the opportunity to try out different cultures, how it was better to audition for a job than to interview, and how great it was to have flexibility. The problem is, that's all a myth.

The vast majority of temps are permatemps- people who take assignments with no real end in sight, who are expected just like everyone else to come in every day and do a job, but are not given benefits, paid sick days or holidays, or anything else that American workers have worked so hard for. And if you are that sort of temp who prefers short term assignments- good luck. When I'm not working 6+ month assignments I'm not working- even though I'm registered with four agencies, at least two of which have told me of my great reviews.

Oh, and the reviews. I am currently working a job that started out as short term when I filled in for a vacationing executive assistant. The executive raved about me and told the agency I was wonderful. She also passed along my resume to HR. Three weeks later, the assistant had been fired and I was back. I worked for two more months of rave reviews- and than the executive hired a permanent assistant without realizing that i could SEE the emails she was sending saying that I was a great worker but that she was looking for someone "bubbly." So I was passed down to another executive. I signed on for a month, as I had plans to visit family for the holidays. After I gto back to New York, they called me back AGAIN- because the other person they had doing my job sucked at it. Re-invited by the same company TWICE- clearly they think I'm a good worker.

So, for three months I have been doing all the jobs a a temp does, PLUS the jobs I was ORIGINALLY trained to do- editing, writing, and psychoanalysis. i am now writing my boss's emails. I am his confidante. I am the original gal Friday- except I'm not a gal. And everyone around me says, "Why doesn't he just hire you permanently?" I shrug, watch him interview a succession of perky women, and then find I'm going to be short on my rent because I had to miss three days of work for sickness. I am the only person I know who dreads holidays.

Temping will not become a fulfilling occupation until temps are treated the way they should be- as valuable employees. Right now, I'm lower than a janitor and have less security. And don't just say, "go get a real job"- if I could, wouldn't I? But people would rather hire someone who has done one job badly forever than someone who has already proved his eclecticism and versatility. THAT's a temp. And that's where I'm stuck.

[zakstar]

to clarify, I pretty much told them that if the money was green, I'd be happy to work. I didn't care at all about what industry it was. So I'm not even being picky.

[zakstar]

Can you explain how you get sent out on jobs so quckly? I've been calling in for 4 months, 3 firms. I've ALMOST had a gig twice -- that the client cancelled last minute. Otherwise, I can't get them to send me out. I know my references are solid. And I test Advanced on Excel and Word, Intermediate on Powerpoint. I can also spell, alphabetize, and count. . . it's not enough that I get rejected on the full time job hunt, the temp agencies aren't interested in me either.