Scenes from Temp Hell

[katallison]

So, way back when I was doing temp work as a regular thing, I came across a phenomenon I call "Temp Gaslighting," wherein one is hired to cover for an employee who was fired or otherwise left on bad terms with the organization, and one discovers, in the course of time, that the instructions and guidelines left for one by the dearly departed are deliberately, subtly, insiduously wrong, so that by following them one appears to be slowly revealed as an incompetent nincompoop, and the former employee looks like a shining light in comparison.

Which...I don't think is what happened with the current job. Just that my predecessor was both a lousy teacher and a terrible recordkeeper, so that I am constantly stubbing my toe by trying to do things the way I thought she'd told me to do them. (::sigh::)

Of the good, though, is that one of the staff I support came in today, rather tentatively, to ask me to clean up and maybe proofread a big whacking procedures manual for a subset of the radiology staff, which turned out to be chock full o' comma splices and mangled syntax and deeply unfortunate formatting choices (half-inch margins all the way around! Random indenting and bullet-pointing! Every third or fourth sentence in bold italics, just for the hell of it!) So I get to play editor, which is much more fun than trying to re-re-schedule meetings with a half-dozen people who DO NOT UPDATE THEIR FRIGGIN' CALENDARS GOD DAMN THEM ALL!

Also, and as random a side note, I always knew I sort of disliked Outlook, at least as an e-mail application, but now that I have to work with it 40 hours a week? I am alternating between snarling viciously at the monitor, and crying like a little girl for my lost beloved Gmail. OMG Gmail, I love you so much, never leave me again. ::racking sobs::

In non-temp-hell news, I have been chosen for a second interview for a job (an actual, more-or-less-in-my-professional-field job), and while on the one hand it's nice to get at least that degree of affirmation, on the other hand I'm not at all sure I actually want this job, at least not as much as several jobs for which I have applications in the hopper. I have a terrible feeling that I'm going to end up in that unpleasant tapdance of trying to figure out how long I can string out the good folks offering me the B-list job while waiting for the people hiring for the A-list jobs to get off their asses and figure out what they're doing. God, I hate that particular ethical dilemma...

Comments

[brooklinegirl.livejournal.com]

"Temp Gaslighting,"

HEE. omg, seriously, that is awesome, and I am UNSURPRISED. (Though, I have to say, after your last post, I was thinking, "HUH. I am SO not creating enough of an aura of SUFFERING around my job! I need to work on that!") Too funny, though not, you know, FUN.

*crosses my fingers that your A-list job comes through*

[mrsronweasley.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, that ethical dilemma SUCKS. I'm sorry! I hope the A-listers don't keep you waiting long! *bites nails for you*

And I love the random bold italics. I think I'll actually start doing that from now on. Wheeee!

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

Nine years ago I went on an interview for a job I didn't want, just to build up my "interview karma." Everyone was nice, the job was nothing I particularly wanted to do, and of course they offered it to me. I remember talking to my dad about thedilemma, and he said the key words : If you don't like it, you can leave. This was a novel concept to me; I usually stick in jobs for years and years.

So I took the job.

I'm still in it, nine years later.

I love it.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Oog. Good luck with getting at least a job that isn't sucky temp work? Like Shay says, you can always leave, and you might just love it.

(I did the opposite that she did; I took a job because it was a job, and then 3 months later the one I really wanted came through, and I quit job A and went to job B, and lightning did not smite me where I stood.)

[the-star-fish.livejournal.com]

OMG! You are, like, the only other person I know who uses 'gaslight' as a verb. I keep having to explain it to people! And then they look at me! o.O

ANyway, unless a lot has changed since my day, people tend not to expect a lot from temps, so I'm sure you're impressing them just by being you.

love,
your #1 minion

[brooklinegirl.livejournal.com]

I keep having to explain it to people! And then they look at me!

ME TOO. what is WRONG w/this world!

[blacksquirrel.livejournal.com]

Best of luck!

you are one person

[kormantic.livejournal.com]

you're not a big company with money to burn.

You be cool and try not to commit suicide at your dayjob.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

I think the same way about Open Office when I am at work.
It's rather like having a nasty affair rather against your better wishes, really.
Took me 2 hours today to get a perfectly simple mail merge to work on Mstinko Vista, because it is so wonderfully user-friendly about these things. Really, they think they are, they tell you so at every chance! HEre's nineteen gazillion options that don't apply to your situation and never will, and which honestly don't work with each other either!
This kind of nasty at work, when you know you've got perfectly fine free shareware at home, with people online who bloody well answer questions when you ask. Did I say free?

[china_shop]

Good luck with the job application juggling! I'm trying that myself at the moment. :-P

[tehomet.livejournal.com]

Re: temp gaslighting. I have never experienced this but I have heard others complain about just that concept.

I use Gmail at home and Outlook at work, and really there's no comparison. Outlook makes me want to sob.

I hope the A list people get their act together a.s.a.p. *crosses fingers*