Graduates beware, temporary work gives you no more than a pay cheque
“You’ve got no commitment to us — and we’ve got no commitment to you.” Recent graduates may find that temporary work pays the bills but it can undermine the confidence university gives you.
Finishing university with a good degree in film and TV last summer, I headed towards the world of work with shoes full of lead, maniacally clinging to my undergraduate life, looking for “something temporary” to pay my rent whilst applying for things I’d rather do. I found a position as a clerical officer in the mortgage operations division of the Royal Bank of Scotland. Having never been paid to work previously, I found myself on the phone to angry Scots who were expecting to speak to a clued-up mortgage expert. I did this for 110 days.
Every one of those days involved a bus journey to Norwich Airport, which is only different to the second world war air base that once existed on the site because it now has a Costa Coffee.
The bank was housed in a building akin to fallen space debris, and combined this affable charm with a massive windowless office space; an ominous, Kursk chic that rendered time and space irrelevant as daylight quickly became the sole and precious preserve of weekends.
Once the seasons denied us the outdoors, breaks were taken in the foyer, in the shadow of carved monolithic slogans attesting to the superiority of our customer service and our “lean principles”. Visibly inspired, the workers sat slumped beneath these inspirational words like drunken bees, pawing at paperbacks with tense eyebrows or staring at their phones, hoping that Twitter might save them.
The effect on my brain was most curious — I became near-mute, whilst my subconscious bought forth songs that it deemed fortifying. When I found myself mumbling Welcome to the Black Parade by MCR and then The Breaking of the Fellowship from Lord of the Rings on consecutive days, I decided an exit strategy was needed.
Whilst the benefits of no commitments make temping a tempting prospect, take care; to the recent graduate casting around for something knowable or progressive, it can be hugely undermining of the security and self-belief that undergraduate life instils. The environment I found myself in caused me huge amounts of anxiety — I am a big believer in fear as a motivating force in my own life (healthy, I know), but as a wave can carry, it also erodes. I was told on my first day, “You’ve got no commitment to us — and we’ve got no commitment to you”, a horrendous notion if you are questioning the value of your work. However, if you can embrace the simplicity of that philosophy and see temping for what it is (money), then it can be the ideal stopgap.
Short-term work is an unfortunate and unforgiving reality for many graduates, and regardless of necessity, it should always be taken and carried out on your own terms: always know what is expected of you from the start, demand information when you are not given it and drop any stress at the automatic doors at 5.30pm. The bad days get you closer to the better ones.
Originally published at abstractmag.com on March 12, 2014.
