Temping

Temping sucks. There's just no other way to put it. This assignment is reviewing, cataloguing, and organizing eight hundred documents in a room with no ventillation and three other people who play video games all day. I have two interviews tomorrow, so today is my last day.

But this has gotten me to thinking about the nature of work and how people approach it. Believe me when I say that there is nothing I'd rather do less than alphabetize and file. I start to feel as if ants are crawling beneath the surface of my skin. Still, for the past week I've shown up every day and torn into the job at hand, doing the job essentially by myself and getting it completed days ahead of schedule.

And there've been three other guys in the room, playing video games.

I start at nine. At ten I allow myself a tiny break, ignoring the rules and check my e-mail. At noon I take my hour-long luch break and check my voicemail and return calls. At two and four I allow myself more e-mail checks, and then I leave at five. Those are my landmarks and I enjoy measuring my progress against those landmarks. I particularly gain satisfaction from completing a job I'd rather not be doing, and doing it better than anyone else. If I'd had to sit in that same room for two more days looking busy, instead of being busy, I'd have gone insane.

But the other side of that coin is that now I go home at least two-day's-pay poorer and I haven't even played one video game.