Monday, August 22, 2011

Adventures in Temping

I had the GREATEST temp job today!  It lasted a little under 5 hours but gave me so much inspiration!  It also helped to pull me out of the seriously nasty funk of this past weekend and will be adding much needed money into my pay the rent fund.  All in all, it was totally worth being woken up at 7am after going to bed at 1:30. 

So, this job was hawesome.  It was The Devil Wears Prada but with boys.  The job was filling in as an assistant to a CEO because the real assistant was stuck in airport hell somewhere.  I almost had this gig on Friday, but got bumped for someone who had worked there before.  I had been warned that this "gentleman" was "difficult to work for" which was why the job paid at least $5/hr more than the average assistant job.  This morning they offered me another $1/hr on top of that.  Hell yes I will be there!

After braving the traffic across the river into the wilds of Northern Kentucky, I arrived at the offices of The Company.  The receptionist, a delightfully gay man who was also placed through the same service, chatted with me until the HR director came to lead me to the office of said CEO.  He was not in yet, neither was the office suite's other occupant - a former assistant who served his time and got promoted.  Unfortunately, no one had the passwords for the computer I was to use, so I ended up beginning to type some notes on an iPad.  Usable keyboard, my ass!  The boss came in and was nothing but pleasant to me.  His first call was because his computer "looked funny".  I couldn't find anything wrong and neither could the tech who came in.  The tech simply closed and then restarted Outlook and CEO was happy.  Next call was for copies.  Then boss came out in search of Diet Coke.  Once I finally got into the computer, this made more sense.  The usual assistant had left a document with instructions and phone numbers that almost made me laugh out loud.  Not only was there a specific procedure for dealing with the mail, there were also notes on where to find the water and Diet Coke to fill CEO's fridge.  They were across the office from each other.  Heaven forbid he be expected to grab a Coke and put it in the fridge himself.  And we for sure would never want there to be less than 10 bottles of water cooling.  One thing that impressed me was the instruction that if either of his kids called, he was to be notified IMMEDIATELY!  Of course, I knew this because of my superior detection skills.  The instructions only gave their names.  I knew they were his kids because of certain listings in his calendar.  Yes, I snooped.  I was given access to everything and I used it.  I got into the calendar and emails and all of it.  I saw that when CEO was notified that there would be a temp this morning he asked usual assistant to request that she be cute.  For reals. 

Being a temp is awesome in so many ways, not the least of which is the access without the responsibility.  When I temp, I feel able to be myself because I don't worry about impressing everyone.  If they don't like me, whatever.  I'll be gone soon anyway.  And it seems to work.  I just got a call from my recruiter that the last company I temped for has requested me back!  It's a part-time indefinite temporary position so I can still look for other work, but I'm employed in the mean time!  I'm having a GOOD DAY!

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