Yep, that’s me.  I actually got fired by a temp agency!

Six years later, it is still very embarrassing to admit, even though I claim no fault. Chock it up to “one employment agency lesson learned the hard way.”

I hope by sharing my embarrassment, other job seekers can make better choices or let go of a bad past experience.

I moved to Portland with a handful of dollars and an ocean of faith. I just knew I was supposed to be here – but I didn’t really have a plan. Almost instantly I was broke and job searching without a phone or internet at home. Trying to find jobs online at the library within the allotted one hour a day wasn’t working well. So I turned to the phone book’s seven pages of employment agencies and picked two, one professional and one labor.

The manual labor company experience was short-lived. Although I have been a roofer, an irrigator, a ranch hand and a residential cleaner, I never got an assignment.
They tried to place me into a few full-time positions, but the hiring companies would not allow a trial run first. Thankfully, I got a call from the professional company.

My first temp job with them was fantastic. The work was boring – transcribing – but I was in a downtown ad agency with a foosball table in the entrance. It was decent pay and a pretty good fit for a journalist whose license plates read “FOOZ.” Then the hammer fell.

At the end of the second week of this temp job, communications with the employment agency receptionist crumbled. Apparently the receptionist was extremely busy or having a bad day because she was very irritated that I called to confirm my timecard was received. (BTW – when temping, you don’t get paid if your timecard is not received on time, so checking is an important thing.) I explained that I had no return phone number and needed her to check for the fax now. In a huff, she said I would have to call back and hung up on me. I called back got voicemail.

And then I was fired. The receptionist’s story was that I was rude and hung up on her. The hiring agent said they could not tolerate rudeness and canned me. My boyfriend was my only witness and he was as appalled as I. I had never been fired before!

Is there a moral to the story? Several are plausible.

1. Choosing an employment agency is like choosing a job – success will come only from the best match, so be picky. CareerAdvise4U teaches job seekers to develop their brand, professional target and ideal career role before finding a recruiter.
2. To employment agencies workers are expendable. You might not find work (or keep it) if you are not a good fit for the agency.
3. Even when you think your attitude is fine, check it. When two people are frustrated and having a bad day, someone will get the short end of the stick.

So that’s how I got fired from a temp agency.  Of course, without this incident I wouldn’t have landed the perfect job I was meant to have…but that is another story.