The WorkGroup

When I first starting working for a temp agency, I thought it was a great thing. I was searching for a permanent teaching job, and needed a job fast to tide me over until I could get a teaching job, and then earn enough money to make it through until the school year started.

It’s that particular circumstance that underscores the benefit of temp work. It can get you from point A to point B for the short term, and can give you a variety of work experiences, which, in my case, give me lots of cool things to write about in my blog. Otherwise, temp agencies exploit the people who work for them and undercut the labor market in their area.

Admittedly, working for a temp agency allows a worker an opportunity to “get their foot in the door” of a company that they otherwise might not have. If the company fails to hire them on, they still get some valuable work experience that might help them land a job elsewhere.

For most poor and unskilled workers though, Temporary employment is a form of exploitation. An agency may only pay a temporary worker minimum wage, while the employer pays the agency far more than that. A worker with a little bit of initiative and a decent employment record can do much better for himself by applying for work directly with the employer.

A lot of temp work is work that regular employees of a company don’t want to do for one reason or another. Temporary employees often work at dangerous jobs for which they are woefully untrained.

Two of my own temp experiences involved some serious potential injury. For one job, I worked on a 20 food stepladder where the person I was working for assumed I knew the basics of high ladder safety. I was terrified.

Temporary labor also undermines the salary and benefits of permanent workers. By using temp workers, employers can keep wages far below union scale wages since these workers don’t stay on for very long. Employers also don’t have to worry about providing other benefits like health care to these workers.

This often leads to resentment of the temp workers by other workers. Being young and naive, I had no idea how I was hurting the labor market until a family friend, a union plumber, explained all the detriments of worker for the “scab” plumber I’d been working with at the time.

In short, unless you’re interested in gaining SHORT TERM experiences, or getting a foot in the door for skilled employment, don’t bother with temp agencies.