21st Century Slavers...

Temp services are sort of a mixed bag especially in today's economic climate. True they do put in a good deal of effort to find work for other people. People that are desperate, exhausted or otherwise sick of the rat race that is looking for work.

I am unfortunately one of those people. I have been looking for a steady job that isn't soul-crushing, mind-numbing or ridiculously outside of my skill set and pays well enough for me to get ahead. The market is so bad that a college educated, articulate, hard-working, quick-study with a wide variety of skills like customer service, computer repair, carpentry and a whole bunch of other useful trades can't find a decent job. The point here is that I am qualified, ready, willing and able to do just about anything outside of flipping burgers or manually masturbating caged animals. Hell for the right money I might even do that. It is by way of me being exhausted and frustrated that I have fallen into the "temp worker trap."

Since I have become a bonafide employee of a temp service I have been assigned to a few jobs and been contacted (and passed over) for a few more (an example of one I didn't get: euthanizing sick and dying pets.) At first my response was more like actually getting hired. After a while though, and certainly after the assignment, it started to feel more like getting screwed from both ends. You go to work, you do your job, you learn things, get to know people, get into a routine and then one day all of that is gone. Then you wait, wonder and hope. One good thing is that in the mean time you have a chance to look for a real job or make plans to go back to school. In my case I keep getting screwed because I have had just about enough time to get back into the routine of planning and looking for a real job when they call with some other open-ended bullshit assignment. It's like flipping a coin. Will they send me to some hot factory to lift heavy shit and work with nasty chemicals or will I be riding around in a van all day checking meters and filling out paper work or will I be cleaning up shit (literally shit) all day. And then you get to ask yourself all the other questions like, "how long will this last?", "should I even get invested by getting chummy with my coworkers?", "how much effort do I really care to put into my work knowing that at the end of the week the employer can just tell me 'thanks for the work, now get the fuck on'?" Of course you don't want to be a complete boob because you get rated but then again is it really worth it to be all gung-ho about something that is purposely designed to expire? It's a fucking tight-rope.

In any case my overall point here is that temp agencies are the modern day equivalent to slave traders. And I will explain why I think that. They trade you around like a baseball card. You have no real sense of security (of course actual slaves always had job security but in this case I am equating security with the whip of being employed at whimsy which is sort of scary.) They pay you below scale in comparison to other permanent employees of a given company and that's how they make money. And that really is it, they rent you out as cheap labor and reap the rewards for the work that you do. So in essence you are a slave, rented out like I would rent a floor sander for an hour, a day, a week. And the real kick in the teeth for both temp and business is that if you work out and they want to take you on as a permanent full-time employee the business that is renting you has to pay the agency to buy you from them which I am told is quite expensive. And also you are prevented from actually jumping ship of your own accord which sucks because if you do happen to find a good fit the renter is contractually barred from hiring you for an arbitrary length of time. In effect you are the property of the agency, your free will is stifled by contracts and you feel like some odd brand of semi-chattel to be bought, sold and traded at the discretion of some corporate jerk face.

So do I feel good about this arrangement? Not really. I don't like the insecurity, I don't like the diminished pay that enriches my masters, and I don't like the lack of free will inherent in these sorts of arrangements. Granted I am still free to quit and find work on my own. And there is a slim chance of actually landing a permanent position. But overall the experience is a little disconcerting. Too bad the economy sucks so bad that I can't seem to leverage my talents on my own but have to rent myself out to a trader in human flesh.

Also, there is the ineptitude of the agents themselves but that is just getting away from the big picture. And at this point would only make this post spiral into baseless ranting.

Not all customer service is crap.

I'm actually quite happy to report that somewhere in the world today there is a company with a brain that doesn't treat their customers like shit. What company is that you ask.

2600 Enterprises Inc. who publish 2600 The Hacker Quarterly.

The story is a refreshing and simple one. It is also a much needed reminder for me that not everything in life is total shit. As it happened, a few weeks ago I received in the mail my last issue of the first subscription to this informative and crucial quarterly magazine. Unfortunately this issue arrived in a badly damaged condition which to say the least was a bummer. I pride myself on the care and condition of all items I deem worthy enough to place on the shelves of my library and having been a fan of this publication for almost 13 years now I would dare say that 2600 represents one of the most prized parts of my collection. My friends, those that truly know me, would say that I am a little over-protective and perhaps a little obsessive about my books and I can't really deny that that is pretty much spot on. In any case this story does have a happy ending.

So being the archivist that I am I determined that for me to be happy I would simply have to go to the local shop and get a pristine copy. But before I did that I decided to send an email to 2600. I didn't bitch, I didn't whine I just explained the situation much as I have in the above paragraph. I also placed the blame squarely where it belonged, on the US postal service. And finally suggested that perhaps they could stamp "do not bend" on the envelope to perhaps avoid this problem in the future. Amazingly this is the response I received the very next day:

We apologize for the condition of the magazine. It is not a frequent happening, but things do happen in the mail. Please provide the address and we will mail you a new copy.

Mary
2600 Office Manager

Wow! Drastically simple and incredibly generous. Not at all what I was expecting especially given that the problem was not the fault of 2600. If this had been any other company I fully would have expected something more to the tune of "tough shit buddy, not our problem, go fuck yourself." So I responded with the information they asked for and today I received a brand new and defect free replacement. No hassle, no run-around, no back-talk; just good solid customer service. All the corporate ass-hats out there could learn something from this little exchange. Like don't shit on your customers. Remember the HP/MSI debacle a few posts ago? Yep, never going to give those idiots another dime. Or another lesson to take home, even if it's not your fault, doing the right thing and even doing more than the right thing often has other benefits. For instance here I am writing a glowing blog post about somebody doing it right. Thanks 2600, you guys are awesome. And finally, are you paying attention corporate drones, I expect that my shipment of back issues and a 2600 coffee mug should arrive shortly. And why is that, because I feel a little more attached to this brand and their products and want to support an organization that has the balls to make something right. One more time in case you missed that; I expressly purchased more goods from a company because I trust them and they trust me. I spent my precious time to tell the whole world in a public forum how great I think 2600 is because they didn't just treat me like some mark that they can milk for profits.

It's about people not profits. It's about doing things the right way not about pushing your sales. It's about trust and not about the bottom line. More businesses need to recognize that treating your customers like shit is no business to be in and more businesses need to recognize that treating your customers with respect is what drives people to want to do business with you again and again.

Again, thank you 2600 for all that you do and for the very positive experience we were able to share in. Keep up the good work.

Happy Independence day...

Thanks Canada, you're a real friend, too bad that the US will have to invade you and take over soon. That Gulf thing is really making it hard for us to maintain our lifestyle but I am sure we can come up with some plausible reason that we need to invade. Hell a lot of people here already think that we should. Some still don't understand that you are a separate sovereign nation. And even more disturbing is that some of them wouldn't even care, all they know is that you have oil, we need oil and think that sovereignty is what the UN is/has been taking from us all along. Google for Texas Republican Platform if you don't believe me.

So from somebody that gets it but has no authority in any way shape or form to do anything at all about it. I am truly sorry but my countrymen are coming to steal from you and there is nothing that can realistically be done. But hey, since you are close enough maybe we can actually extend to you full statehood. In that case you would only lose a small fraction of the rights that you think you have. Afterall, the corporations are the ones that set the tone, law and enforcement here and there. It is only a matter of time before these "new persons" take and pervert everything that we have come to know and love in the past couple of decades.