When recruiters dangle temp jobs in your lap...

So, here's my current situation that I could use some insight on from recruiters or fellow contractors.

Part-Time Job:

$15/hr
30 hours a week
No benefits

Weekly net is $345

Temp Job #1:

$17.50/hr
40 hours a week
No benefits

Weekly net is $575.00

*3-5 weeks (contract end date unknown)

*I start it tomorrow b/c I was desperate so I haven't let the other part-time job manager know yet. I thought I'd give it 3 days of this week to see if I like it.

If I hate this temp job, then I have the other part-time job's training start next Tuesday.

It's a call center so they have trainings every month. I filled out my paperwork already.

I just need to attend one week of training then I will work from my home remotely with a laptop and headset.

Two *possible* temp jobs not confirmed yet completed interviews for.

1. $19.50 for 40 hours a week for 3 months = $639 a week
2. $20.00 for 30 hours a week for 3 months = $495 a week

Well it's a good thing I have my back-up part-time job that starts next week with training. The temp job I started today was horrendous and I left after 4 hours.

I texted with my recruiter two hours into the role, that this was not a good fit for me.

When I arrived to the company this morning, the human resources gal left me sitting in the front of the office for 35 minutes without any communication other than, "I have to prepare for a big client coming in. Wait here."

Red Flag #1: From the start, my presence there was not a priority for the office (or, this woman at least).
Red Flag #2: The human resources manager didn't have an account set up for me on the company computer system yet.
Red Flag #3: When I asked the human resources manager if she was hiring for my role that I was there to fill-in for, she said yes, but they only wanted someone in the role temporarily; not temp-to-hire or direct-hire. So, she had no plans to even consider interviewing me as an external candidate (my recruiter of course gaslighted me; telling me that all "her" candidates get hired there if they do a good job. That's recruiter code for: "Stay in that role for the duration so I can get my commission. I don't care about your welfare long-term."
Red Flag #4: My professional background and skills plus my degrees made me overqualified for the role and on a personal level, I think that bugged the hell out of the human resources manager. She was snarky with me from the very beginning, so not sure why she even agreed to let me fill-in for that role to begin with. Her cohort had me filing and then work in the storeroom pulling "dead" files to be recycled. She came in and snarkily said, "you need to be at the front desk," and she didn't like it when I responded, "Well, you didn't give me any training or computer access and your cohort asked me to do these tasks. Maybe you two should communicate better." So yeah, overall, it was a horrible fit b/c our personalities clashed too.

I hate temping sometimes.

I just read this great article about how to deal with passive-aggressive bosses. The gist of the article is to offer proactive ways to avoid triggering the passive-aggressive person.

1.Don't stoop to their level. If you do stoop to their level, you reinforce and legitimize their behavior. You end up showing the passive-aggressive person that this is how you will respond to their behavior, through conflict, which keeps them passive-aggressive anyway.

2. Don't confront them directly. Instead, manage their behavior by calling their behavior out, "I noticed that you are consistently [sarcastic, indecisive, undermining, withholding] and I can't tell if you're that way with me intentionally, or if you have concerns about my work performance that you need to talk to me about. If you have ideas on how I can improve, I'd be open to hearing them."

-this takes great emotional intelligence to not stoop or confront. Right?

Obviously, I could have tried those techniques today but decided to confront her directly b/c it was to toxic of a situation already and I was not about to waste 3 weeks working for a person who wasn't going to give me a good recommendation anyway. As the idiom goes, "fish or cut bait." I cut bait and left and am glad that I did.

I'll make less weekly at the part-time job, but I'm ok with that for now. Plus, it will be remote and I'll get to work from my home so that's even better.

Temp job gymnastics. Where oh where will Motts land this week?

Monday's receptionist temp job lasted 3 hours because the two women supervisors hated each other and put me in the middle. Their toxic leadership equals trouble for me, the temp.

Monday's intake coordinator job today consisted of the following:

-associate director didn't even make time to introduce herself to me (she chose me as a temp candidate for the maternity leave position); instead she had the pregnant intake coordinator put me in a cold conference room to spend 5 hours watching videos and taking assessments for the confidentiality of the intake coordinator role.

-at the intake coordinator's lunch time "baby shower," the associate director spend the entire 60 minute baby shower discussing the new grant they received and ignored her own pregnant intake coordinator who just sat there; a woman who has been at her nonprofit for 4 years, who is 9 months pregnant ready to give birth at any time.

-when I asked the associate director if she'd consider hiring me for an open role she had posted there, she blatantly said "no, you don't have the qualifications I'm looking for" (I did in fact, have the qualifications but she doesn't want to pay the temp agency fee if she were to hire me since I am there as a temp)

Tomorrow I am supposed to start training for a $15/hr direct hire call center role that is only 30 hours a week, less then $400 take-home after taxes.

Today I sat in my car and spoke to the recruiter for this maternity leave assignment at great length. I verbally laid out the pros and cons to her:

-the displays of toxic leadership today from the associate director esp. her flat out refusal to even consider me for a very good job that I'm actually equally qualified per the job's list of required skills for

-the lack of training (her poor intake coordinator made ZERO effort to train me and just moaned the entire day about her feeling sick and ready to give birth)

The temp agency recruiter gave me a veiled threat in her attempt to play devil's advocate with me on the phone when she said, "think of the negative consequences if you DON'T follow through with this assignment...(pause)...but I'm so glad you are speaking to me today about it after all I'm here for you.

Baloney. That's what all recruiters say. I reject this job after one day, she loses her big fat commission. She can also CHOOSE to blackball me from being considered for future assignments if she has a personal agenda in being pissed that I lost her 13 weeks of commission money (the assignment was meant to go 13 weeks but we all know temp assignments are unpredictable).

My gut tells me to RUN! I know from past temp experience that toxic leaders don't suddenly become great leaders for their temporary employees. I was given a preview of what my life would be for the next 13 weeks as the temp intake coordinator. And no thank you. If it means I lose out on future assignment opportunities b/c I put myself first, WELL FINE. But I'd rather have my self-respect than go forward with this temp job. What if i make a mistake? This woman will fire me. After all as a temp you are expendable. I have no idea who could train me after the pregnant intake coordinator leaves this week to give birth.

Another temp agency recruiter contacted me about a monthlong data entry job in another nonprofit. She's always given me great assignments that I've had zero problems with. I texted her for more details today and she said she'd get back to me. I am not going into that horrible nonprofit intake coordinator role tomorrow since the pregnant intake coordinator is scheduled to work from home. So Tuesday is decision day for me.

And, a LinkedIn recruiter messaged me about a temp job but they are not based in my state so I know it's a spammer account of some kind. So I just ignored it.

But Tuesday is decision day. I'm so fed up with not being treated with respect by people as a temp. The gall of the associate director to ignore me, not let me introduce myself, or not even bother introducing herself to me and chit chat about my resume and the job's skills or anything was a HUGE red flag for me. Plus, the way she turned a baby shower of her intake coordinator into a grants meeting disgusted me. Effe that!! Her agenda is work work work. She is a toxic leader who doesn't give a hoot about anyone in her organization.

So...

I emailed the recruiter last night and quit the short term temp job, and asked to be considered for contract-to-hire and direct-hire opportunities instead. Good thing too, b/c the intake coordinator isn't going to be back anyway and is on her maternity leave. I'm proud of myself for following my gut instinct and backing out of what would have been a terrible temp experience.

Then I went to the training this morning at that other place and was turned away b/c I refused to get vaccinated for Covid-19. I have natural immunity already since I had Covid-19 and vaccine acquired immunity isn't a guarantee as current research shows, from the Covid-19 vaccine. So basically, I experienced employer discrimination b/c the vaccines are not legally mandated and businesses are not legally allowed to require vaccines from their employees. There's no written laws about that yet. So, I emailed the person who hired me and told her I do not want to work there as I will not be getting vaccinated since I still have natural antibodies' immunity from Covid-19. The amount of deception by businesses using Covid-19 to illegally discriminate against people who need to work astounds me. This vaccine doesn't even work. People who get vaccinated STILL get Covid-19! And, the acquired immunity from the vaccine isn't guaranteed nor does it last that long (it's like the flu shot that is annual now and a different strain every year).

Then a lawyer who reached out to me randomly to ask me to be his legal witness for his small law firm, for $50. He reached out to me because I had signed up for one of his seminars on Facebook to learn more about the service his law firm offered. Totally inappropriate for him to ask me out of coffee too (he's married with children) to discuss my interest in a paralegal certificate. I emailed him back declining his offer. So creepy. Seriously, why does this happen to me? I wonder now if he picks random women to do this to? Probably. At least I declined his invite. Yikes.

Then some random weird lady parked illegally in front of my apt building and refused to move. When I motioned her to move so that i could park there, she got out of her car and tried to open my driver's side door while yelling at me. She took a picture of me and my license plate so I called the police and reported her license plate and gave them a description of her.

It's been a horrible Tuesday so far and it's not even dinner time yet.

I had a really good Zoom counseling session tonight to help me mentally process all of the craziness over the past few days. The counselor posed the question to me, "How have these experiences helped you?" I guess each experience helped me observe about myself a character flaw; that I don't always 'draw the line' aka boundaries and then redirect bad behavior to my advantage in situations where interpersonally I'm annoyed but not being abused per se. Like, the two snarky co-workers who didn't like each other where I was the fill-in front desk receptionist. In hindsight, I COULD have drawn the line and asked them both "would" and "how" questions to hold each woman accountable and force them to articulate their roles with each other while I was there, and their roles with me.

Then, I wouldn't have been so damn annoyed with their snarky petty behavior.

The second situation with the toxic associate director? Even the counselor noted that had she been in my shoes, she would have walked away too because the associate director's behavior crossed the boundary line into toxic boss type abuse.

Then that part-time training with the Covid-19 test because the manager discounts my natural immunity as not as valid (in her mind) as vaccine acquired immunity. I still have a few days to salvage that situation if I choose to swallow my pride, go and do the spit test for Covid-19 (knowing I am still showing antibodies so my test will be positive although I don't have Covid-19). At least I think if i test I'll get a positive test result b/c i have natural antibodies. I'll have to ask at a local minute clinic to find out. If my antibodies show up negative, then I'll do the spit test and bring the results back next week and resume the training. So, that situation is in *pending* mode.

Finally, there's the creepy lawyer who called me randomly after I watched one of his law firm's free seminars online, to "go out for coffee" and "offer to help me out financially by paying me $50 to witness his will & estate cases" that a hired and certified paralegal is supposed to DO at his law firm. The counselor commented that he seemed like he was grooming me and I had to agree. Who the hell calls someone random like he did with me? Ten years ago I would have set aside my gut feelings, labeling them as 'wrong' or 'off base' or 'over reactive.' But not today. He was downright inappropriate with what he did. I still can't believe he thought what he did was ok. Yuck.

So, I guess these experiences served as reminders that life tests our character, and although I had the tools and skills to handle myself with each situation, I didn't rise to the occasion with two of the situations like I know I could have. But I draw the line with that toxic associate director's behavior and that creepy lawyer's behavior. Both of them bordered on different kinds of abuse, so in that sense, I correctly responded, I think.

Hey Motts, couldn’t help but see that you need some answers regarding Covid, Covid tests, and Covid vaccinations. I too had a prior Covid infection and Covid antibodies but guess what I still get vaccinated as are most of the healthcare workers that had Covid antibodies, because while having antibodies are good nothing beats the antibodies the vaccines provide you with. Yes, there have been reported breakthrough infections due mostly to the Delta variant. The vaccine will lessen the symptoms and keep you out of the hospital and dying.

The only reason I could see you not yet getting vaccinated or qualifying for a vaccine is if you had Monoclonal IV Infusion Therapy as treatment for your original Covid infection. Scientists currently recommend a 90-day period after such treatment. If you didn’t receive the aforementioned treatment, then you should have gotten vaccinated when you no longer showed symptoms of Covid/could receive a negative swab.

FYI the only way an employer will be able to tell if you have antibodies is by a blood test and that will only show antibodies which the vaccine will also give you. In short unless you had the IV Therapy treatment there is no reason not to get a MRNA (Pfizer/Moderna) Covid vaccination. Your natural antibodies will run out and without having a vaccine you are still at a higher rate of either an Alpha Covid reinfection or Delta. Sure, the vaccine isn’t 100% effective. Neither is birth control, or the flu shot. But it diminishes your risk of needing to be hospitalized or dying from Covid.

The saliva test they want you to take will only test for a current Covid infection. Which you shouldn’t test positive for. It will not show your antibodies because that can only be detected by blood.

I’ve been fully vaccinated since January with Moderna and have been perfectly fine since January. Please as someone in the healthcare sector I beg of you to please reconsider getting vaccinated for Covid. Hospitals are becoming overrun with Covid infections yet again. Only this time it can be prevented with vaccines.

Hi TheSeaCat, thanks so much for your reply.

While I understand where you're coming from about vaccine acquired immunity, I will still need to disagree with you that VAI is better than natural immunity. I trust my body's immune system more than I trust the poison that is put in vaccines.

Esp. since people who've been vaccinated still can get and spread Covid-19. So, vaccines aren't a fail safe system against Covid-19 and I see no point exposing my immune system to getting poisoned, or worse, dying from a vaccine that isn't actually 100% effective as a preventative measure against a virus.

But my thread is about the way employers are not being ethical regarding Covid-19 and hiring practices. We could debate VAI and natural immunity in another thread. But I think this is one of those topics where neither side will see their opponent's side as valid.