So, I got a call last week for a short-term temp job and because I desperately needed the money and because I had nothing else really in the pipeline, I took the job. The assignment was supposed to be 4 ten hour days. Cool, no problem.
The first day, there were some issues and they let us go after 8 hours. Cool, no problem. The second day I worked an extra 2 hours… a tich inconvenient, but whatever. There were actually people who worked an additional 2 hours after the time I left. But, again, we were told that the EXPECTATION was that you would work a 10 hour day. The third day, they sent us home at the 10 hour mark. Cool, no problem. The last day, I worked an additional hour and a quarter. However, there were people who ended up staying about 2 more hours and THEY got assigned to go back to the company and work additional days.
I don’t begrudge any of the people who got the extra work. There were a lot of people there who were in even more dire straits than I am financially and good for them (genuinely) that they are getting more work. But really… if the EXPECTATION was that you were supposed to stay each day for 14 or 16 hours, I wish that would have been articulated. If it had EVER been put out to the group that, hey, we expect you to work until we kick you out every day, I would have gone on my 2-3 hours of sleep and just kept slogging along. But that was never either articulated or intimated or even remotely hinted at.
On the up side, I met a lot of really nice people and (maybe) made some friends. But I can’t help but feel disappointed that, even though I was one of the most productive workers the hours that I was there, I was never clued into the key to getting asked to continue on and I know you are probably thinking I should have known that, but they never gave a clue as to when they were shutting things down every day. Case in point, the day they MADE us leave after 10 hours, I had been prepared to work 12 hours. So I guess I don’t feel like I was adequately informed as to the true circumstances of the situation. And, if such an opportunity ever comes up again, I will just go into it expecting to work 16-18 hours a day and cancel the entire rest of my life for however long it ends up taking.
There is currently nothing pending and I’m more than a little depressed. I just want to get back to having something I can count on. And I would like it to not come with a big side dish of questioning whether *I* will be sticking around.