Into the Temping Zone

Abstract

Megan is on her way to the Office Angels temping agency in Leeds. It is a chilly spring morning, and the streets are buzzing with the energy of the early morning traffic. She hurries her steps towards the Headrow office. She wouldn’t want to be late for her first meeting with the temporary staffing agency. Having left secondary school last year and then tried odd jobs here and there without much luck, she has set her hopes on temping. Perhaps temping can help support her in-between now and making a career choice? Perhaps an interesting and tempting job offer may even turn up? Admittedly, she was not very keen on turning to temping a few weeks ago. There are, in her mind, a number of uncertainties attached to temping. Who knows where one may end up, or what kinds of assignments one may be sent on? Would she stand the test? And then there is the ambivalence attached to the status of ‘the temp’, as the free agent answering to no one, on the one hand, and as the one on the lowest step on the corporate ladder, on the other.