… the HR Minion. Because even minions have opinions. And giggles.

It’s hard out there for a temp

I’m finally starting to get into the rhythm of my new job. I’m no longer in training mode, I’m working on my own, and I almost have access to all the computer systems I need (why would that be ready to go my first day? That would make sense.) I’m still bugging my co-workers with questions, but then I’m full of questions. It’s at this point that I find myself reflecting on my new job and how things are going. So here are the pluses and minuses so far:

Pluses:
– It’s a job!
– It’s a job in HR!
– It pays well.
– It will give me a lot of great experience.
– It gives me experience in a new industry.
– It’s at the Buy More corporate office and I’ve always wanted to work there.

Minuses:
– No benefits and no paid time off.
– I’m non-exempt again and it’s hard to get used to.
– Tracking my hours and productivity, which is also hard to get used to.
– Little to no face time. Most of my work is done on the computer and over the phone.
– More transactional HR, less relationship building.
– While I like what I’m doing, it’s not what I want to do long term.

What’s the moral of all this self-reflection? Take advantage of the pluses but don’t obsess over the minuses. And above all, avoid complacency.

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March 10th, 2009 Shauna Posted in HR

3 Responses | Add your Own

  • 1 Kelly O :
    March 10th, 2009 saat: 6:17 am

    I can totally relate to what you’re saying about the difficulties of being a temp.

    My last temp assignment was different than some of the others because I was temping for a company that was a vendor for another company. Our offices were in the client’s operations headquarters, so we saw a lot of their day-to-day things going on. Then the company hiring the temps would have meetings that sometimes included temps and sometimes did not, with little rhyme or reason to that. It was challenging to say the least, and definitely set up a class structure in the organization since there were nearly 40 temps in long-term positions at any given time (one person in particular had been a “temp” for two years.)

    It’s definitely a conscious decision to focus on the positives and gloss over the negatives during the day.

  • 2 HR Minion :
    March 13th, 2009 saat: 7:58 pm

    Kelly – I am known for my positive outlook. 🙂 Thanks!

  • 3 HR Minion :
    March 20th, 2009 saat: 3:15 pm

    Erik – Very true.