You have accepted your first temp job. You are excited and scared. You should be. Starting a temp job is like starting any new job. The only difference between starting a temp job and starting a full-time job is the full-time job lasts longer. If you change temp jobs every week, you will have to go through the same process every week that someone who changes full-time jobs may go through every few years.
Review Your Directions
Give yourself plenty of extra time to get to work on your first day. Allow yourself time to be caught in a traffic jam, change your panty hose because you have a run in them, or change a flat tire. If you have not been there previously, drive to the company the day before you are to start work to find out exactly where the job is. That way you will know where you are going and will not get lost the first day you are to be there.
Know the person's name you are to report to. This person may be your supervisor for your temp job or it could be the assistant to the person who will actually oversee your work. Write that person's name and phone number down so that you will have something to refer to in case you forget. You should also write down the name of the company and the company's address for the same reasons.
Once You Get There
If you arrive early, wait in the lobby until someone from the business gets there. If someone (like a receptionist) comes out to greet you, say what staffing service you are from and whom you are to report to. Some companies work with several services, so never assume the staffing service you represent is the only service that sends temps to that business.
A business may have a security guard who asks everyone who works there to sign a register. The guard will need to know what service you are with, and you should also tell the guard what department and supervisor you are there to work for.
You may be asked to wait in the lobby until someone can escort you to your place of work. You may also be given a parking pass or a badge like other employees of the company wear.
Orientation Films and Brochures
An orientation process is a procedure that informs you about the company where you are working. Some companies may have an orientation film to view or a brochure to read before you start work. It will tell you what the product of the company is, who its customers are, what the policies are, and how you will fit in. That is why the process is called an orientation-because it orients or introduces you to the company.
The company may ask you to sign a document that verifies you have read its brochure or watched its film. If you are given a badge or a pass, you will be responsible for turning it back in at the end of your assignment.
Confidentiality
Due to the important nature of many professional, executive, or technical temp jobs, you may have access to valuable data that the company considers proprietary. Do not be surprised if the company asks you to sign a legally binding nondisclosure agreement.
Getting Direction versus Being Left on Your Own (Sink or Swim)
You may be assigned to a small business that does not have any formal policy for temps working on its premises. In fact, you may start work the second you walk in the door. You may have to figure out how to do the job by yourself. Look what happened to two different people on their first day at a temp job.
Sam reported to XYZ Computing Company, having been sent by a staffing service to work as a consulting manager. When he arrived at 7:55 A.M. on his first day (he was to start work at 8:00 A.M.), no one was at the front desk. He could see where the receptionist was to sit and work and he heard phones ringing. Sam sat waiting for instructions.
At 8:10 A.M., Damon, one of the employees of XYZ, arrived. He nodded to Sam and hurried down the hall to another office. About five minutes later Damon came back, carrying his coffee mug, and asked Sam if he had been helped. Sam said no, he was there to work as a temp and was waiting to report to Mr. Nelson. Damon verified Sam's status and had him sign a confidentiality agreement.
Damon said Mr. Nelson would not be in that day, pointed Sam in the direction of the office area, specializing in client-server tools and relational database management systems (RDBMSs) modeling, and wished Sam luck.
Sam spent the rest of the day greeting other consulting managers in the division but never received any guidance as to his position's goals or needs.
Sam had to figure out how to do things himself on his first day at XYZ because the person who was to supervise him never showed up. Sometimes, as a temp, you just have to make things up as you go along because no one may be there to show you how to do them. You may not get any feedback or direction at the place you are sent to work.
If you do not know what to do, call your service and ask the person who put you on the job for suggestions. That is one of the things a staffing service gets paid to do-figure things out when no one is there from the business to help you. Make it be the service's headache, not yours.
Sarah had a different experience from Sam on her first day. Sarah reported to a large bank that had very specific instructions for temps. The service had given Sarah a manual to read about the bank before she started work there. The manual told her where to park, what the dress code was, the standards for bank employees, who the bank's customers were, and what the mission statement was for the bank.
Sarah followed the manual's instructions about how to get to the bank and parked her car where she was supposed to park. She reported to a guard station, signed in, and waited for her designated supervisor. The supervisor came to the guard station and escorted her to the place where she was to work.
Sarah had been told by the service she would be working as an information system auditor. The supervisor showed Sarah where she would be working and then sat beside her for a few hours to make sure she had all of her questions answered and was comfortable. Several people in the department where Sarah was working stopped by and introduced themselves. Sarah had very few problems adjusting to her temp work as a result.
