Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Temp agencies: a lower form of life than pond scum

Two weeks ago one of the agencies with whom I've worked contacted me about work that was pouring into their office from a client organization. They ran out of editors and asked me if I was interested. Not a word since. I call this "vapor work."

This agency, along with the rest of them, operate with even less humanity than the notorious pond scum that is Human Resources. They don't have to present themselves as representing the interests of employees vs. a company/organization. Nor do they, even superficially, need to purport to reflect a corporate culture that is concerned about employees.  

I believe that temp agency employees are the dropouts and failures of the HR profession who couldn't rise to the surface of the pond. And perhaps the most outrageous aspect of working for them is that however long you have an assignment they will receive their pound of flesh -- the roughly 33% (commission) as much as you earn.