A temp agency question...(Or are these guys as shady as i think they are)

[MoonCat]

The door-to-door sales thing is a good guess and very possible. Companies that work this way are very cagey about the way they recruit, because they know if you learn the company name there's a strong chance you'll say you're not interested.

But not telling you anything about the type of work? That rings a lot of alarm bells.

[judecat]

When you sign up for a temp agency you are not necessarily applying for a particular job at a particular company, you are applying to sign up as a temp with the agency as your employer. So they won't necessarily have a specific job they are sending you to.
I worked for Manpower, I was payed by Manpower, depending on who contracted with them for what, I might be send for a few weeks working retail downtown, and next would be a week doing filing for a registered charity, a few days filling in for someone in a business office who is out sick, ect. Even when I got a long term assignment working in a distribution warehouse, I wasn't employed by the business, I was employed and paid by Manpower. If the distributor had decided they didn't need that particular job filled they would have just called Manpower and terminated their contract with them, and I would have been open for a different assignment. If the distributor had just decided they didn't like me personally, they could have just called the agency and told them to send someone else, and I would have been open for a different assignment.

So the question isn't "details about THE job", the question is "information about the kinds of assignments, and the areas they cover.:

[MoonCat]

Judecat, that's how it works when you sign up with the temp company, but from the OP it sounds like Immortal1982 was applying for a particular assignment that the temp agency was trying to fill. If so, they should have been able to give some info on the assignment. If nothing else, they should have told what the rate of pay is. How else can you know if it's worth your while?

[judecat]

If the job is through a temp agency then it usually means that the temp agency has no one with the required skills available, but the actual employer if you are hired is still the temp agency. They are going to make sure you are are actually qualified before they even give you a hint of the specifics of the job.

[MoonCat]

If the job is through a temp agency then it usually means that the temp agency has no one with the required skills available, but the actual employer if you are hired is still the temp agency. They are going to make sure you are are actually qualified before they even give you a hint of the specifics of the job.

Yeah I get that. Still sounds fishy to me. Maybe I've gotten too old and cynical.

[Gizmo]

If the job is through a temp agency then it usually means that the temp agency has no one with the required skills available, but the actual employer if you are hired is still the temp agency. They are going to make sure you are are actually qualified before they even give you a hint of the specifics of the job.

Yes but once they know whether I have the skills or not (eg. they've read my CV and asked some program use questions) then they need to tell me where the placement is (approximately) as there is no point the client looking at my CV to decide if they want me if I can't get there.

For example: I was phoned for a temporary role in "City". I tried to drill them down on the location and told them I was on public transport etc. "Yes its in "City" proper..". got through the first look, was given the address - 10 miles outside the city, no public transport connection within 0.5 mile and the hours they want would require a 6am start to my commute if the buses were even running then (which they weren't). Earliest bus started 45 minutes too late to get me there.

So do they want to put 10 unsuitable CV's to the client or tell me "job is in "outskirts hamlet of city" which I could have checked and found out I couldn't get to? Outskirts hamlet had plenty of businesses and I wouldn't have known which one it was even if they had told me that.

[Sapphire Silk]

I've worked as a temp nurse. After I signed up with the agency, they'd call me and offer me shifts at local facilities, or on home health cases, usually on a week by week basis. Sometimes they'd call me with a last minute shift (usually because a regular staff member had called out sick).

I was employed by and paid by the temp agency. When they offered me the shift, they told me the hourly wage, the facility/private case location, and hours.

Nothing would prevent me from going to a facility and putting in an application for a job, but I had no desire to do so. Being an agency nurse meant:

1. absolute control over my schedule--if I didn't want to work a shift, I didn't. If I wanted specific days off, I just told the agency I wasn't available those days.

2. Control over the sites where I worked. If I didn't like a site or a private case, I didn't accept those shifts.

3. Uninvolvement in office politics. Since I didn't work there, I wasn't invested and didn't care.

So the agency had no reason to withold information for me. We worked for the agency because of the freedom it offered us, plus the fact we made more per hour than the staff nurses did (with the sacrifice of sick time, vacation time, and health insurance).

Maybe agencies like Manpower are different than the nursing agencies I've worked for; I don't know. But based on my experiences, I'm not liking what I hear about the OP's company.

[Immortal1982]

Well on a good note, i did score the other job i applied for, so no, i definitely won't be dealing with these folks. Now i just got to spend the rest of the week getting my stuff together for work.

[judecat]

Panacea, that's exactly how manpower worked. Manpower was my employer. They would call me when they had a job for me, telling me when, where and how much and for how long, and I would either accept or decline. If I declined that meant I was still available and they could call me back, sometimes the next day with another assignment. I loved it, and worked there for years.

I have an appointment with a temp agency next week. I applied for a particular temp to hire job they advertised, but since I'm in my late 50's I'm not really counting on getting it -- not with people half my age and twice my education competing with me. But the temp agency itself does employ older employees, so I'll just sign up with them. I have a few friends who temp for them, and they average 30 hours a week for at least 48 weeks a year. And after a few months they do offer buy in for health insurance, which is a least something.

[Andara Bledin]

I haven't been in the temp gig for almost 17 years, but when I was working temp, the agency that placed me would give me times and location and if I asked, the general pay rate for any opening. There were a lot of one-day gigs I didn't take because it would cost as much to work them as they paid.

I would have absolutely zero confidence in any organization that couldn't, at the very least, give an approximate pay rate.

^-.-^

[wagegoth]

I worked through several different agencies, and they would tell me the rate, general location, and type of work before I ever agreed to the assignment.

I'm glad the OP found a different job, because that is just too fishy.

[Sparky]

I used to work for Kelly Services. Actually, I worked for them twice, the first time back in the '70s when the name was Kelly Girls, and later in the '90s.

When they hire you they will discuss your skills. You may be given one or more tests. You have the option to take a typing test; if you don't you won't be offered jobs that require typing.

When they offer you an assignment, they will tell you the name and location of the company where you'll work, what duties you'll have, what computer programs you'll use (if any), approximately how long the assignment will take, and anything else you need to know. You can accept or decline the assignment. If you accept, they tell you where to go (front office? shipping dock? pharmacy?) and whom to ask for.

They don't worry about you going directly to the company to try to get the assignment. The companies that use their services have signed a contract with them not to do this. Besides, those places don't know you from Adam. If you work on an assignment and the company offers you a permanent position, someone has to pay Kelly Services a fee. The company might do so, or you can pay it yourself if you're willing.

A reputable temporary service doesn't have to be sneaky. You get the assignment details up front and you can take it or leave it.

[judecat]

But that's only if they decide to offer you the assignment. If they are contracted by a company to do direct hire, a lot of times it's in the contract that they don't give out details until the decision is made of who to hire. I do know that a major hotel chain in my area does all their hiring through a temp agency, and under the terms of the contract the agency is not allowed to tell applicants the details. If you are considered for the job, the hotel will contact you to offer you the job and at that point you get the details.

[Kristev]

My mother enjoyed working for a nursing agency when we lived in Louisiana.