The Half-Truth

I took this temp gig for two days. Or at least, so I was told it was going to be two days.

I get to this company to work on time, even a little earlier. I start working, thinking it is going to be a full 8 hours. It turns out they called me in about two hours later than when everyone actually started working. But I didn’t care much since I figured what they were having me do would go longer than their regular business hours…

I can be so naïve sometimes. In four hours, they told me they didn’t have anything else for me to do. They wanted to sign my time card. What am I to say at that point? “No, I was promised 8 hours?” Of course not. Do I even have that right? Well, I let them sign it and  ended up literally wasting the best part of my day, working for the minimum wage.

Then, I went back the next day. I was still hopeful that my first day was just coincidental. But NO!! They worked me another 4 hours and said, “Thanks for coming, it was very nice meeting you.” That was, indeed, all they needed me to do. They just called me in the peek working hours and paid me minimum wage for that work. Wow!

At the end of the assignment, while I was hoping I would get 16 hours of work, I ended up getting 8 hours and I spent 2 days for working those 8 hours.

You’d think, now that I’ve a master’s degree, I’d be smarter. May be not.

Who do I blame? Of course, the temp agency. If they had told me it would be a total of 8 hours, I would've declined. But oh well. I should know better to see the temp agency's too trying to make money off me, so of course they'll tell me the partial truth...

For the next time, I know better.