I worked as a temp when I first moved to Boston and I really needed a job. I met with the agency briefly and never dealt with them after that except to fax in my time sheet. I worked for a financial trust company in downtown Boston for six months. I was there to take over a full-time employee’s duties doing stock trading confirmations and depositing massive amounts of money (sometimes in the millions) while she was out on maternity leave but she decided to be a SAHM so they kept me. While I was there, they treated me like a regular member of the team. I got invited to the very lavish Christmas party and several expensive nights out on the town with the crew paid by the firm. All in all, it was a great experience.
I landed a position as a manager in another company and left that job. In that position, I had to pull in temps all the time for special projects and I always treated them with respect and they almost always did a good job.
This week, I just started as a contractor/consultant in a very large Boston area company and they treat me very well. Granted, being a consultant is not exactly the same thing as a temp but there is still the potential to be treated as an outsider. I don’t see that happening.
In summary, temps don’t always just have to do grunt work and they aren’t always treated poorly. I certainly believe that it can happen but, if it happens consistently, it could be an issue with the assignments that the agency assigns to you or simply with the image that the temp portrays him or herself.