So I start off on Monday and get there bright and early at 8:30, I asked for Mickey like the agency said, but it's a new guard and he doesn't know who Mickey is, so I wait around for about a half hour till the receptionist gets there. Now I have done a few temp assignments before and they always start a little rough but this one was just weird. Now keep in mind I'm not in the best of shapes and I was never built for speed, I was built for stealth, but to hear the guys I am working with complain about bending over and picking boxes I realize that these guys just like to complain.
Anyway Joey who is the only one there shows me the mail room and where everything is. I quickly realize that all he really does is wait till packages come in. He gets what I would consider a fairly light mailing that day for an organization as big as his but hey everyone is used to different things. So when he starts saying that they got hit hard today all I kept thinking is "This is going to be a breeze." I soon regret that thought. During the course of the day I find out all this guy does on a regular basis is receive, separate and deliver all the incoming mail and deliveries and prep all out going mail. A heavy mail day was when I prepped 800 envelopes that had to go out for a promotional. Now by prep I mean run it through a machine that stamps it and seals it in less than an hour... and that was going deliberately slow cause there wasn't more to this job.
What amazed me was that this company has a facility management team made up of 7 people. One supervisor, 1 engineer, 1 handy man, 1 mail room supervisor (Mickey who never showed up) 1 supply manager (Joey The guy who trained me) and 1 mail clerk (Freddie Who I was covering for) and the receptionist. The only reason I was hired was really to cover the receptionists break while the clerk was out on medical apparently he normally covers her breaks. I was never introduced to the supervisor but I could figure out who he was by the way everyone acted when he showed up. A lot of people saying "Look busy." The handy man who was only there 2 months had been trying to find things to do he was so bored. In the 2 Months he had been there he had repainted the light poles in the parking light repaired the broken power washer, power washed the entire building, repaired the elevator lights cleaned the outside camera housings, railings and generally did in 2 months what people who had worked there 15 years had never seen done. I never met the engineer but I think I saw him walking around. The receptionist I discovered was watching episodes of Charmed when no one was around. I think you are seeing a pattern here. No on had anything to do.
Now Joey, the guy who trained me was a little weird. He had this short haired charlie Manson look about himself that disturbed me. Add to the fact that he talks a lot and a I mean a lot, anyone who has hung out with me knows I talk a lot but I know that I will at least pause so the person I am talking to gets a word in. Not with this guy. I honestly believe I could have left and he would have kept talking. But the guy didn't seem bad just a little weird. I think what made it worse was he doesn't look at you, he looks to your side. as if he was talking to your shadow or some ghost that only he could see.
So I go back on day 2 for more of the same.,. but when I get there at 8:30 I figure I got a few minutes so I grab some breakfast sit down and eat, and wait. I see a few papers there I sort those to who they go to and wait.... and wait... and wait... I finally find out that Joey doesn't show up till after 10 because he has a standing allergy shot he has to get on a weekly basis. I find this out and proceed to try and find something to do. Since I don't have any Internet connection All I can do is write in my mini Moleskin note book a couple of strips for the "8 spot". There is just nothing to do. There is so much down time I am literally burning out my blackberry texting friends and what makes things worse is they are hinting that this might turn into a permanent gig. I need a job but I don't know if I could handle doing this all day with nothing else to do. I mean if I had access to the Internet maybe... but truthfully I don't know if I could have handled it.
All these things leave my brain on the third day. When I get there wait for an hour and Joey shows up and than Freddie shows up. Now the first thing I think is what am I going to do if the guy I am covering for is there. Than I hear this guy has some sort of medical condition and that is why they called me to come in, they weren't sure if he was coming back. Now apparently there was something shady about his medical but since he had all the paperwork he couldn't be fired, they were just hoping that he wouldn't come back. So there I am sitting around helping a guy who I was supposed to replace and what sucks is I was doing the job better than him and he knew it. He didn't say anything but he felt that I was a threat until I told him this was my last day. It was so weird that when I got lunch I just drove around rather than eat cause I needed to clear my head. I honestly felt like the day couldn't have been any weirder. I almost thought I was on a reality show but it wasn't funny enough... just strange. At one point one of the voices in my head just said "You know after you are done showing him up at his job why don't you just ask him if he needs pointers on satisfying his woman to."
It's sad that I am out of work and when they didn't ask me to come back I was ok.
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