I’ve been temping at this place for the last six weeks or so. “Disbursing,” they call it. I review company checks for accuracy before they get sent out to recipients, scan expense reports, fill out deposit slips, file, etc. General low-skill grunt work.
Yesterday the temp agency guy emails me wanting to discuss an exciting new opportunity. Which as it turns out is the same opportunity I have now, only permanent. Apparently my temp-boss has been raving about me to the agency guy for days. She’s thrilled with me and desperately wants me to sign on full time.
Plus side is that it’s steady employment with benefits. The environment doesn’t suck, the people generally don’t suck.
Down side is the job is, to put it mildly, unchallenging. It requires almost no critical thought on my part. I’m bored for long stretches of the day and if I didn’t have my iPod and take more-frequent-than-I-ought-to breaks I would surely go mad. I can’t imagine myself doing this a year from now. The pay isn’t horrible, but if I go permanent I won’t get any increase despite the fact that the company won’t be paying the temp agency for me any longer.
Got out of a meeting with the pseudo-boss about 20 minutes ago. I was very open with my feelings that the job was not challenging and that I am looking elsewhere for permanent employment, and that if I were to stay I would want assurances that either there would be more engaging things to do or more money. Well, there ain’t gonna be any more money and it seems likely that the job won’t get any more engaging. Vague words were spoken about “having a foot in the door” with the company (a multi-state insurance firm) and the possibility of moving up within the department (into a full-time data processing position, no thank you) or maybe outside the department. No promises of course.
If I turn it down, I have no guarantee that I’ll continue here. It seems likely that I would continue until mid-December but if I decline the offer my pseudo-boss will have to list it and start taking applications, meaning I could be out of work at literally any time. Not comforting.
I’d take it. There’s a lot of truth to the ‘foot in the door’ thing, and as an employee you’ll find out stuff you don’t have access to now. Good benefits, good people, they let you use your ipod and take extra breaks.
Take it - you never know what’ll happen down the road.
You’ve been honest that you want more challenging work, the offer is still on the table. My guess is that they’d rather have you - skilled, fast, good - for six months than an unknown who doesn’t work out for a year.
Stop being so fussy about how “challenged” you are. It’s steady pay and benefits, and once employed you can look for your dream job of fighting flame shooting dino-droids and ending world hunger, while winning the world championship at Texas Hold’em in your spare time.
Holiday pay, sick leave, maybe even vacation time: these are all benefits of permanent employment, too. Do not knock holiday pay.
I bet if you were asking for information on the duties of other positions, folks would let you get your feet wet, here and there. Although you might want to ask if anyone else has ever started at your position and gone on to better jobs. If others already have, then there’s at least something of a pipeline in place. Sometime the ‘foot in the door’ line isn’t a lie.
I did ask about whether the foot in the door thing was bullshit or not. It’s pretty much been bullshit at every other job I’ve ever had except one. The only place to go in the department is into a “processor” position, which is eight hours a day of data entry. I’d almost rather starve. I’ve done data entry. I hate data entry. My pseudo-boss was very up front about it. As far as moving out of the department, it’s possible, but there are of course no guarantees.
While I do want benefits, paying for them means I lower my take-home, which isn’t all that wonderful to begin with.
How large is the company? I once got a nothing position at a company that had many lines (including insurance) and I ended up getting an insurance license and becoming an agent. (I later found a better job doing something else so I quit).
If the management of the company has any brains at all and you are A) a good worker and b)motivated, they’ll want you to try for new positions.
The problem you might run into is that if you’re really good at your job, your boss may make it hard for you to leave because she wants to keep you.
Plus ,if Bush gets reelected, you’ll probably be laid off in about 6 months and get to collect unemployment
Throw in everythign that the job would mean, professionally, financially, logistically (i.e. Commuting issues, difficulty in getting lunch, etc.) physically (Reading all day gives you headaches? Data entry exacerbates your carpal tunnel?) and emotionally, then add up the results, and use that to help you in your decision making.
I don’t know. This has happened to me twice earlier this year, and both times I turned down the job without a second thought. I turned out okay, but it never was my intention to get a permanent job through a temp agency.
It all depends on what you prefer to do and your financial situation. Can you afford not to take this job and to look for another one? Will the temp agency keep you steadily employed if you don’t take this job? Can you afford to pay your own health insurance or are you dependent on an employer to cover it for you? I found that my agency was able to give me steady work pretty much whenever I wanted it, so taking a full-time job was not necessary as long as I paid my health care.
Personally, I much prefered this kind of freedom to being stuck with a 40-hour-a-week job I absolutely hated. It all depends on your personality, your skills, and what you’re able to put up with. Your decision, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a mistake to say “no.”
If you were out of work or doing day labor the situation you describe would look pretty good. At worst, it’s the exact situation you are in now, plus benefits, which is really the equivalent of a big tax-free raise. Unless you don’t really need a job, or have another one lined up, take this deal. That doesn’t keep you from looking for something better. From everything I’ve heard, it’s a lot easier to find a job when you have one than when you are unemployed and desperate.
One other thought: you say this is a multi-state insurance firm. If you have ever wanted to live somewhere else, maybe taking this job (and not screwing up) would create an opportunity for you to transfer to one of the company’s offices in another city. They pay for the move, you have a job waiting, and then if you want you can look for something better there.
Incidently, it sounds like your pseudo boss may be hot for your frame. I mean, you’ve laid your cards out on the table, and she’s still willing to offer the gig to you…(Kramer hat on) *She looooves you. (/Kramer hat)
a couple of years ago, I took a job that although paid well enough, was so boring it was entertainment to twiddle my thumbs. I took it basically because I needed some emotional down time (the job prior was very emotionally demanding). Almost two and half years later, I was ready to move on, which I did. During that time, I was able to pass up two job offers (as in, “We’ll offer you the salary you want, can you begin in two weeks?”) in the hold out for the job I have currently, which is the one I really wanted.
The main reason I hung onto the Thumb Twiddling Job for so long was because it was a steady income, wasn’t mentally or physically demanding (although it also wasn’t mentally challenging), and they offered health insurance, which I wouldn’t have had if I were unemployed or working for a temp agency. Yes, I had to pay a portion out of pocket for my health insurance, however, I had that piece of mind that if anything happened, I’d be covered.
In contrast, I have a friend who is on unemployment and is having a heck of a time finding another job. No health insurance, and he’d down to literal pennies each week before his unemployment check arrives.
No really, congrats. A steady job is a steady job, and there are worse steady jobs. I have a friend who made a living degreasing heater units by sticking them in vats of boiling chemicals.
On the bright side, sometimes good things do happen. I said yes to becoming permanent on my job just to get benefits while I looked elsewhere. I was pretty much told that my opportunity for advancement was very limited. Lateral moves only, pretty much. I simply didn’t have the qualifications they were looking for in a managerial position.
A year later, they offered me an interim and then a permanent position in management.
Situations change. The upper management in our facility all changed and we went through a period of some crisis, when my skills and degree became attractive enough to have my name dropped at a meeting where they were looking for people to advance. Hey, sometimes things work out.
