2002-02-03 - 3:20 p.m.

Venting...

This piece is out of order – I was going to outline my working history – but I'm really getting mad. For now, suffice it to say that for the last five or six years, I’ve been working long-term assignments through a “temp” agency. I finished a two-year job last February, and in July I went back to an attorney where I had worked before.

When I had first worked for this guy, he was still pre-computer, and I carried work home to do on my own computer, trying to show him how much more productive we could be. Eventually he did get a used computer, on which I set up a system to do his kind of work. I even created templates for his kind of letters, pleadings, and so forth.

However, he never got the point; he now had to capacity to handle more cases, but he didn’t want to handle more cases. What he wants is to work the very minimum, and then go camping or hiking or whatever. When I requested a new assignment, it was partly because I felt I wasn’t giving value for the money when I sat in that office without work to do.

Well, here I was back again, and my boss assured me that he felt it was worth it for me to be there, even if I just read a book. Fine; I would come in five hours a day, five days a week, to cover his phone and do whatever typing he had. Of course, he was on vacation during most of July and August, so I didn’t work every day.

I worked in September, and by October he was out of money; he couldn’t afford to pay me and cut me to two days a week. Of course I didn’t argue; anyone could see there wasn’t much business. And this isn’t the kind of job where I can go out and drum up business for him. So I’ve worked ten hours (or less) a week or less since October.

“Do you have a job, ma’am?” “Yes, I do.” “And what is your net pay?” “About $100 a week.”

I came in one day to find my desk rearranged. When I looked into the computer, I found work initialed by his previous secretary. It seems that, since he finally settled a long-standing case and has some money, he can afford more secretary hours – so he hires another secretary. No one offered me more time or even asked me how I felt about it.

Suddenly we’re going to go on the internet – not that I didn’t advocate it last time. He even bought a new computer – from the other girl, because “she needs the money.” He may say that he needs to diversify in case one of us leaves, or that he wants to give the kid a job because she needs a break, but it’s just rationalization. When he runs out of cash again – and he will – who do you think will be cut? This is my reward for being agreeable about having my time cut in half.

As a supervisor, I never would have treated an employee that way, even a temporary one. But I’m a “team player,” I go along. I work around what the other girl does, while trying to figure out just how much she actually gets done. And when I try finish some project she has started, I discover that she really doesn’t know the word processor all that well. I reformat.

Supposedly, anything that didn’t copy onto the new computer is still on the old one. However, most of my templates are gone. I can – and do – re-create them. A letter – with a check enclosed – is lost in the mail because she sent it to the wrong address. The correct one – ready to copy and paste – is in my computer file, but I guess she didn’t know where to look.

I am really feeling ill-used, dammit. How long until I can collect my social security?

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Pretty Clever, Huh? - 2008-12-08
Deja Vu... - 2008-12-07
Morally Wrong - 2008-11-25
The Difference - 2008-11-18
Writer's Block? - 2008-11-17