Disposable Workers

I first heard of "temp" work back in the early 80s. Back then, the purpose of temporary employment was normally different than it is now. People who took temp jobs back then usually were not looking for full time jobs; they typically took such jobs to earn extra money for a specific purpose, teachers working over summer holidays, those, such as housewives and college students, who only wanted to work now and then, and the like. Those wanting full time employment found jobs in the traditional manner, being hired as permanent employees directly after a successful interview.

Employers used temp agencies much more sparingly than they do now. The most common reason they hired temps was when a permanent employee would be out of work on an extended basis because of illness, maternity leave, and so on.

Nowadays, temping is big business. The traditional type of temp workers still exist, but increasingly, people looking for full time work are resorting, usually reluctantly, to temporary work. This is because many companies, particularly in the blue collar sector, have ceased hiring in the traditional manner. Instead, they hire large quantities of temps, with the temporary workers sometimes outnumbering the permanent ones.

Initially, this shift happened to enable employers to hire people in a "try before you buy" manner. That is, a person was placed in a company as a temporary worker for a fixed amount of time, usually 90 days, in which time they'd be trained. Temp workers were paid about two-thirds the salary of a permanent worker doing the same job and did not receive benefits. Such jobs were advertised as "temp-to-perm", which meant that at the end of the 90 days, a successful trainee would be hired permanently, gaining full benefits at that time.

Naturally, because of the greed that is ubiquitous in our society, abuses of the "try before you buy" system soon overcame the original purpose. Companies began firing temps on their 89th day, then hiring them back as "new" temps to keep from having to hire them permanently and give them benefits. "Contract" temping came into being; that is, companies used people as temps for an unspecified period of time, which can and does extend for years.

Many companies now regularly operate in this manner: a small core of permanent workers with benefits, and a larger underclass of temp workers. The companies do this to keep from having to pay benefits for all their workers and in times of production slow downs, they can eliminate the temps easily, only to hire them back when business picks up again.

After leaving the police force a decade ago, I ran into this stone wall of temp working. All the companies I applied to informed me that I'd have to temp first before being considered for permanent employment. I ended up temping for five long years before one company finally hired me and I encountered all the abuses outlined above. I was at this one company nearly two years and when they no longer could give me any plausible excuses not to hire me permanently, they told me I "wasn't working out" and let me go. It took them two years to decide I "wasn't working out". Heh -- bullshit!

Another guy I worked with was screwed over even more dramatically than I was. He'd worked for fifteen years for one company when they suddenly went bankrupt. He then got stuck on the temp-go-round much as I did, getting mired in years of this type of underemployment. We both ended up at the same companies during that time, as we worked for the same agency. Supervisors wherever we worked praised him as a hard worker and he was a valued employee, usually better than the permanent employees. He was never late, never out sick, and quick to volunteer for any task.

He was married with a small daughter. Both he and his wife worked full time, as him losing his long time job had put a big dent in their finances. His wife had a permanent job with full benefits. He worked second shift and she worked third, so that there would always be someone at home to watch their daughter. There was an overlap of about an hour from the time his wife left home for work and when he would arrive home after finishing work, so they'd hired a babysitter to fill that small gap.

One week, the babysitter suddenly quit without notice. He explained at work that he'd need to leave work an hour early each night for a few days until he could line up a new babysitter, adding that he'd be willing to come in an hour early each night to make up for the lost time. This was a practical solution, as the plant was a round the clock operation.

Despite his excellent record, the company immediately fired him, expecting him to choose his job over his child. They even told him that his wife should have been doing that; that it was her responsibility! He and his wife had decided he would do it because her job was the one with the benefits. At any rate, how they chose to handle it was their own business.

My coworker's story is a typical one among the growing underclass of undermployed, disposable temporary workers. What was once a good idea has turned into a monster.

Thoughts?