Temporary employment day...(lengthy rant)

Be forewarned. This post is 'getting it off my chest' to say the least.
I'm going to let it all hang out, so for those who don't want to read long,
drawn out complaint sessions, hit the exit button now.

My beef of the day? The way some offices treat temporary receptionists.
As a favor for the man who has been helping me seek employment, I filled
in for the day as a receptionist. Granted, the employees in the office all know
one another's names, so a two-panel gigantic phone system is nothing.

Just hit this, hit that, hit this, hit that, take a message, hit that back, transfer,
click, press that. See how easy? Pfft. After I made the same mistake twice, a
woman from the back made a big deal out of it. Oh, sorry, didn't know you were on
the 'I'm too important to take phone calls" list. For pity's sake, take your phone off
the hook until I learn to read your mind.

The address book? Ten loose pages of assorted names, incomplete lists and in
partial order. Two of those ten pages were alphabetical, so if someone called for
Jane and she was not on sheet one, you looked at two, then three, then four, etc.
Meantime the person on the phone is getting nine kinds of uptight because
you don't know the extension by heart, two other lines are ringing and the woman
next to me is correcting me loudly as I am trying to think and work.

I'm trying to punch in the series of nonsense while she's shouting orders at me,
and she doesn't even work for the same company, she just sits at the same desk
area. By way of long term employment, she's 'eavesdropped' the opposite
company's business and doesn't mind sharing it, but when you ask a question,
you get the "I don't work for them" response. Ugh!

Even my apology for being a one day sub and not familiar with the system nor the
address lists failed to please the callers. And get this. The phone system was for
several companies, so you have to answer each one with a different greeting and
company name. You also cannot just transfer calls, you have to ask who is calling,
then call the person, ask if they want to talk to the person, then get the person
back and transfer. No, not just for the big wigs, but for everyone!

So here it gets graphic. We (the interrupter and myself) were the only two in the
front. A heavy fart smell fills the air. I did not do it. Suddenly she gets up
and leaves me with the fart, and here comes the woman who is too good to
answer the phone. The rest of the day, she kept stopping by the desk whispering
and laughing with the woman who left me in the green cloud.

Forever I'll be dubbed the temp who did you know what, when I most certainly
did not! Come on, you have the opportunity to pass off something that bad, you're
gonna take it. The sub won't be back. She takes the blame.

The banana and the trash. Oh good grief. I'm starving to death, so I placed a
tissue on top of the hard drive (no one could see it) and placed my banana,
taking a small bite here and there. You should have seen the looks she gave
me, but later on, do you think she had a problem eating the great big hunk of
chocolate cake from a party down the hall that she didn't bother to ask if I wanted
any of? Oh, that's right. I don't work for THAT company.

Sniffles came. I grabbed a tissue, courteously turned around to dab gently,
wadded it up and tossed it into the trash. She looked at the tissue in the trash,
then at me, then back in the trash. When I put the banana peel in the trash, she
did it again. Little did I know that I had my own trash can, it was just buried under
the desk pushed way back. So she was telling me in no certain terms that I
had used her trash can.

Then, as if her intrusive shouting did not distract me enough, she suddenly
switched gears and began waiting until I finished the call to say "You should
never send Mr. So and So calls from him." or "So and so is his assistant,
you are supposed to send all calls to her."

My job was literally to sit there all day long and do nothing but answer the
phones. Talk about a boring job. So, I began creating my own alphabetical
phone list in Excel, only to have a lady come along after I made the whole silly
thing to present an alphabetical phone list in full.

Okay, now I'm heading for my monthly female duty, and this is not going over well.
Denied chocolate, made to feel like a fool, cheated out of enjoying my banana, no
coffee at all, been up since 5:30 unable to sleep thinking I didn't want to be late,
drove in horrible traffic just shy of sixty miles to be plunked down in the middle of
catty office girl city only to have a fart blamed on me?

I quit.

LOL...I should probably mention, I didn't actually quit, it was
a one day job, I worked the day in full.

Ha!

WUVIE... I'd have to say that you're a much better woman than I am. I too would have worked the day in full, but I certainly would have had a few things to say to MsStinky about her aroma and the trash incident, among other things! LOL

WUVIE, good rant! Just be glad you don't work there Every Day. I wish you a speedy recovery.

I wish you a speedy recovery also. I don't know that I could have handled it as well as you either. I probably would have either ended up in the bathroom crying or let loose on Ms Stinky at some point. I'm glad you didn't though.

I hope you rest well tonight, you deserve it.

Tomorrow will be such a great day, when this day is a laughing memory.

LOL, in reading my post again the next day, I should clarify the
sniffles were from a cold, not for crying, though if this had been
a few days into my monthly, I may very well have ended up bawling.
What a mess!

Indeed the day is a better one, knowing I don't have to go back.
But now I am in limbo for another week over another job. You never
hear "You've got the job" through one of these agencies. Next comes
the silly rating system. On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate
the interview? On a scale of one to five, blah blah blah.

All this outside work makes me wonder what on earth I'm thinking.
Honestly, I answered phones yesterday for people who live in such
high dollar areas that they were actually calling to report their neighbor's
one foot tract of grass was turning a bit brown. Oh, but I had to quell
my desire to tell her this was normal. It is fall.

How sad that in this day and age, such a trivial bit of nonsense takes such
high priority. I sat and listened to these people boo hoo over a three inch bit of
flooring that didn't seem to match the rest of the house. Oh, boy.

The funny thing was folks dropping off lists of things they wanted fixed in
their new homes. I looked over the lists and laughed, thinking that if these things
were of great importance, then our home is due for bulldozing any minute. Ha ha!

Sure, I understand a new home should be right and proper, but the big deal
these folks make over minuscule things just makes me all the more thankful
I live down here with the common people. A calm and casual phone call may
work wonders, but yelling at the receptionist about a light bulb that casts a
bad light on your dog tells me you need help.

;-)

Wuvie,

I can totally relate to your experience. I worked for a temp agency-for almost 2 years-(years ago) and was sent into all kinds of situations.
I got the impression at times, that people were so afraid that I was trying to take their jobs from them. I had one situation where they didn't want to tell me how to do anything. I was like the enemy trying to infiltrate their co. I would be in tears.
I had a temp job for attorneys where one poured coffee from the pot, on the floor, because he was mad about something. Guess who had to clean it up! ( I won't work for Attorney offices-to me they are the worst.)
One job I had was a law suit against the power company and I worked 2 months doing nothing at all, but photocopying files. Unexpectedly, one day they came and said --"The suit was settled, now we need to throw these files away. (This was before computers) I felt like the job they give a prisoner--Dig a big hole and then fill it with dirt again.---Totally useless .
Now I go out of my way to be friendly to the temps because I know how they feel. I believe -Do on to others, how you would like them to do onto you. Maybe someday I will be back in that situation. The more you live -the more you learn.

Oh, soap, thank you! It feels good to know others understand.

You know, even if I had to train someone, I think I would be a great
teacher. It is so pathetic the way people are trained, even temporarily.
How hard is it to be nice? To be patient? Is the world going to end if
someone who doesn't know you from Jack Schmidt fails to recognize
there are three men with the name of John and you transferred the call
to the wrong one? I want to do things right, but I can only do the job as
well as I am trained. By the time I figure it out on my own, I've unknowingly
caused problems.

The girl could have told me I was answering the phone for three different
companies. How hard is that? Instead, I had to figure it out for myself
when the callers kept telling me they had the wrong number.
Little did I know until later, that I kept politely telling a man he had the
wrong number, that this was a housing development. They lost a customer.
Yeah, that's MY fault.

You know, this is why I would rather work with men. They act up, you put them
in their place and life goes on. With women, that catty instinct kicks in and
they have to protect their cave. Sad.

Then you have the sizers. These are the women who walk by, strike up a
conversation with the well known employee next to you, and then casually
toss in conversation that 'just so happens' to be about weight, hair, nails,
jewelry, clothing, something YOU are wearing. Something easy. A target
they just happened not to notice. Cough. Cough. Oh, sorry, didn't SEE you
were wearing what we were talking about.

Ah, pooey. I'm going to try to have a great day, even if it is cleaning the
toilet. LOL

Wuvie,

LOL--The mistakes you made were THEIR fault for not taking the time to train you properly.
I know what you mean about women. Men, general, don't hold a grudge, or try to -get you back. (The jealosy is not there), Things roll off their back.

I am so thankful for the group of women, (and one man), that I work with now. They are all very nice. Sometimes it takes a while to get to know people.
Have a great day !!

Oh, girl, I can SOOO relate!!! Coming in as the "new person", whether temp or perm, is a BIT$), and especially into a group of women. I've never been able to figure out why we're all so mean to each other in a situation like that. Anthropologically it probably goes back to the caves, somehow, when we were trying to protect our young from intruders---but ya'd hope we could have moved on in the last million years. Sounds like your office-mate could have used her farts as a powerful weapon in those times....LOL!!

One of my temp jobs was for a guy who kept the toilet paper in a locked cabinet. I had to ask for it if I needed to use the potty, and he'd unlock the cabinet, dole out one sheet of TP, and lock the roll up again. I kid you not.

LOL- Imapigeon ---I hope he didn' t count the squares out !!!

Too funny!

Every time I hear about paper hoarders, I think about the
people who say they use three squares. I'm thinking either
those squares are from a different part of the country and
twice the size of my paper, or I'm missing something.

Three squares? What on earth does one do with three squares?

LOL

You use them to dab the tears from yours eyes because you can't use them for...anything else!

Bwa ha ha! Good one!

I'm so glad to hear another woman say that she'd rather work with men! I thought it was just me. I once worked at a lawn care co with about 8 guys and one woman and I told a male employee that I would rather work with all males. He really didn't get it no matter how I explained it, so after that I just got teased lots. The woman who worked there made the place unbearable with all of her antics. She was on a power trip. Any little thing she could do to annoy or belittle someone, she would do it, and she got great thrills from it.

I worked there for 3 months, took her crap for 3 months. The day I quit, her and I were working together alone, which was often the case. Tom Jones' song "What's New Pussycat" came on the radio and I laughed and said the song had always drove me nuts. She told me she always liked that song and started singing it...and kept singing it.

I should have realized how absurd the situation was...kinda looked at it from the outside, but in the midst of her "whoa, whoa, whoa's" I just couldn't take it anymore. I waited for her to leave for the day then I informed my boss that I quit. I also informed him of the 3 months of crap.

There were a few times that I was tempted to block my phone number and call her and sing, "What's new pussycat? Whoa, whoa, whoa..." just because I knew she liked the song so much, I figured it would cheer her up.

Does anyone really like that song??????

i know that song...and i was laughing thinking about that.....when i was miserable at a job, i used to sing, Hey Hey were the monkeeeeeessss....; OR another favorite at a terrible job site was .....EVERYBODY was kungfoo fighting....lalalalalalala

wuvie....i am so sorry you had to walk thru that ...i got a job this week....i am gone from my home 12 hours a day...BUT this is almost an opportunity of a lifetime....AND it has started as a temp.....with potential to be permanent.....; all have been very kind ....except my boss....aka the person that created my job opening....i replaced his former assitant cause she couldn't work with him....

for the money, i will work for him, for the opportunity of a lifetime, i will work for him...he is a rearend...but i don't have to work here forever, and i can pay for alot of things we have been wanting.....and some we have been needing....i am grateful to have gotten this job and the opportunity it has availed....will probably have to start a thread of how much a rear end he is....but for now i am just trying to keep my head above water trying to learn this new position....; i will have to travel.....and be exposed to alot of 'upper escelon people'.....(which is not that much of a benefit..) but i like the newness of this position and just pray that a day at a time i can do it....

Can definitely relate to your rant:) The pot o' gold at the end of your day was that you didn't have to go back there:lol:

It is a shame that none of them considered how much smoother their own day would have gone had they taken a few extra minutes with you to go over the routine or at least having a checklist for use whenever they have the need of temporary help. They will cut their nose off every time.

I usually work with predominately men but I did have the misfortune of working in a Lane Bryant chock full of ladies. Some days I just had to keep the 40% employee discount in my head to make it through the work day. I have a bad feeling we all synched up on our female time too which couldn't have helped:LOL:

Sticks_n_stones, one of my coworkers is always shouting out or singing parts of songs to go on our work related compilation mix CD: Tell Me Lies, Must Be Some Misunderstanding, Cold as Ice, 5 o'clock Somewhere, Head Games, Slave to the Grind ...well you get the point=) We're always calling out song titles to add to the list and having a laugh.

I feel much better about myself now. For years I thought I was the only one who felt this way about working with a bunch of "ladies". Not much is lady-like when they get together, is there? Always liked the men better. I have discovered that it depends on the work. Now I work with males and females who are professional and never let personnal things get in their way. When one does come along that is that way (male or female) they don't last.

I glad you're gone from there and I wish you the best.

Kwanjin

Sorry Wuvie, didn't want to laugh but I'm sure as you ponder the events of the day you'll want to smile as well! I could just visualize the scene...

Bet you'll be looking forward to your next assignment...

Wuvie, Sticks, you are two precious people that shouldn't have take anything from anybody.
So sorry that you have run into the dregs of this planet. One never knows just what kind of impression you are making on others. With your (both of you) personalities maybe you can turn some of these jerks around. Will be praying for both of you harder than ever.

LouC

Actually, Wuvie's first post made me think of Lucy Ricardo. Sorry, girl. Sure didn't want to make light but it had the makings of a great episode of Lucy.

LouC=Lucy

Wuvie, I read your rant and remembered my days as a temp, too! Nobody could clear up time for me to use the xerox machine...my stuff didn't matter even when it was for their superiors. What a mess! You handled things well (esp. the green cloud). Guess, at my age, I'd have said something to her or put up a sign, "Air pollution contributed generously by Sadie Hawkins," or whatever. She'd have been appalled but, as illustrated by her trash situation--what could she have done, rolled her eyes!? Shoot...what they gonna do, fire me from a one-day gig?! chuckle. You are kinder than I could have been....
Keep smilin',
Diane

Wuvie, I'm sorry you had such a bad day at work. LOL (sorry) I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time as I did when I read your work day story. Maybe writing could be in your future. Or story telling, or teaching. With the nack you have for giving understandable instructions, you could teach anything.

Please feel better..
Faye

All of you are so sweet, and such a treat to meet with after sitting
in the catty pool for a day.

Ah, this is much better. A place where one can take off their shoes
(even if they ARE from Wal Mart), stretch out in mis-matched jammies
with a drink from a Goodwill glass, and smile knowing that all the high
standards and social la-tee-dahs could never match the good life we have
right here!

Hubby took me to the big town today, and we had such a great day.
We even 'splurged' using a gift card and ate well, then used a $64.00
refund from of our accounts to buy two nifty outdoor director's chairs.
They are so cool!

We even stopped by Atwoods & bought a pound or two of 'you pick 'em'
candy! Now we're laying around in our jammies eating Clementines from
Sam's Club and we're livin' large!

This is the life!

AMEN! Totally agree. The crew that helps in my yard also works in some hoity-toity neighborhoods. They absolutely love my house and garden because we live from the front curb to the back alley. The biggities don't really have enough yard. All house. Drive into the garage, close the door, and never come outside. Just want the little bit of grass mowed and the shrubs trimmed. No life.

along the same lines of working with women....i would rather work with a guy than a girl....some women take offense to that.....; to them i say, if you had a job applicant, one a man and one a woman....and you were the hiring supervisor, AND they had the same exact qualifications .....except gender...who would you hire? i know who i would....the man....; he is not going to call in sick with his time of the month, he is not going ot call in cause his kids are sick....he is not going to be moody and emotional...(well maybe that isn;t right)...but you get my drift....; i have been stabbed more than one time by witchy females ....so i will take a mail anyday...

NOW on the other side of that coin....i do think that women tend to think better on their feet than men; i do think that women have a more 'can do' attitude than men...and i do think that men can be really STUPID sometimes....but i think i would still hire a man over a women....no offense ladies:)

Oh, sticks, in my ranting, I failed to recognize you found employment!
Good for you, lady, good work! I knew if you waited long enough you
would find something good.

Congrats to you! (holding up my iced tea to toast Sticks' new job!)

If I could find some of you in my office, I'd sure hire you. Wouldn't it
be nice if we all actually lived near one another? Just think, if we all
lived closer we could have so much fun!

But the thing I like about all of you here at Dave's is that I never have
to worry about waking you up, never have to worry about not brushing
my teeth first thing in the morning, you don't even mind if we haven't showered
yet. There is always someone here, ready and waiting with a smile and
something to drink.

That's a great feeling!

Love you both very much.

Aw, LouC, you are too sweet!

(holding out a pair of warm fuzzy slippers and a cup of cocoa for you)

:-)

Have read the posts of both of you on numerous other forums. Always, always such great people. Wish I could know you both personally.

Wuvie, Write a book. you can do it.

wuvie...you know the time with your hubbie in your jammies is the stuff that are the most priceless moments....and eating chocolate at that...

halloween night was kinda a night like that for hubby and me...he was working at our store after a long day at his real job.....i had left my new job after being their 12 hours.....i was exhausted...he was.....with no relief in sight....

WELL, i go to pick of the doggies to take them home and we get to the grocery store .....my dogs lock me out of my car!!!! there i am stranded at the grocery store with my dogs locked in the car.....i called hubby and said is it dead?? meaning the store traffic...cause all the renters are trick or treating...he sez the store is dead and that he will probably close it early....but early was an hour from then....; i said, well, you are going to have to close it 2 hours early ...the dogs have locked me out of my car...(thank god); he drives to our house gets the other car key....we get to the house 2 hours b4 we normally would have and sat in the semi-dark(hiding from the halloween kids) and talked and
played with our dogs and just had a special evening doing nothing...thank god the dogs locked me out...

wuvie...do write a book.....your rant was hysterical.....and i laughed outloud about the fart.....how very rude....; my ex used to fart and then hold my head under the covers.....arrrrggghhh

and of course i have never farted in my whole life..ha

Oh, Sticks, I'm sorry your evening started off bad. Sounds like
it turned out to be a good one. Phew!

Not to turn this into a bad air thread, LOL, I can't resist sharing
a story with you.

One day, I happened to need to do such a thing while driving
my car, yet pulling into a parking lot. Normally I would unroll the
windows, but I figured that since I was about to pull into a parking
spot without any cars nearby, I would just open the car door, get
out and release the you-know-what with me.

So it is released. At that very moment in time, my ex boyfriend
pulled up, got out of his truck and walked up to my car.

Now what?

I can't just open the door, because it will burst out to greet him, yet I
could not unroll the window, because you'd get a concentrated version
in a smaller space. I had no choice but to drop my keys on the floorboard,
obviously unable to unroll the window until I picked them up, giving things
a chance to dissipate.

He's standing there likely wondering why I didn't just get out of the car,
after all, I was in the parking lot and plenty of time had passed. So I put
the keys back into the ignition, laughing and playing it off as though I were
having a blonde moment, then 'accidentally' unrolled the back window, hoping
things would disappear before I supposedly realized I'd unrolled the wrong
window.

By the time I unrolled the driver's window, he was standing back
wondering what on earth had become of me since we dated. LOL.

You know, it's funny. I haven't seen him since that day.

;-)

Wuvie...You truly had the "temp day from hell"...but thankfully you can laugh about it now. My old girlfriend used to do temp work and would relate very similar stories. Then she went to cosmetology school, got her license and went to work in a beauty shop...and, basically went from the fire into the frying pan.

They should make women take classes in dealing with Estrogen Terrorism and control freaks.

Boy, if that isn't the truth.

The worst co-worker I ever had was a case for the experts.

All the nasty things she said and did to me, and yet the boss
said she had nothing but great things to say about me and my
work. HUH? Why anyone would want to project a negative vibe,
'll never know.

The new job I'm seeking has but two women. Well, one I'd guess
to be in her 40's and the other in her young 20's, but seems to be
focused on her work. Maybe I'll find out this week. Then again, she
could be one of those alpha female types who will feel as though
I'm after her 'male attention'. (rolls eyes) Honey, I'm not dressing this
way for the men.

But as hubby said, not getting a job shouldn't get me down. After
all, it is not my loss, it is the companies.

:-)

I agree with hubby !

wuvie is there another 'potential job' lead? i missed that portion of your story...

and since you shared.....about the smelly thing....i have only ever done one smelly thing in my whole life...(yeah right)....anyway, i had a virus that really adversely afftected my fragrance being emitted....i was on anti botics ...but it took a while to get those to working....anyway, i was on vacation with my bf..,and had to time these 'fragrances' just right cause i certainly didn't want to do it with bf 's around; WELL, i had to excuse myself and the way to the bathroom was thru an elevator door.....so i make it to the elevator....coast clear empty elevator!!!! get in the elevator press the floor with the bathroom on it....press the close the elevator door....; All of a sudden i hear, WAIT hold the elevator!!!!.....
i am trying to get the door to close cause this is not a pretty smell......here comes 2 hulking guys running to the elevator....they grab the door to keep it open so they can get it....; OMG, the smell....; the door closes and the 3 of us are trapped with the smell, all a sudden one whispers to the other, can you smell that?? i am standing there dying.....
we finally get to the floor where the bathroom is.....i run off the elevator......