Jumping Ship

The day before my last day at the assignment, I called the Recruiter from the coffee shop across the street to tell her that I didn’t want to take the job. I was informed by the agency Gatekeeper, i.e. the receptionist, that my Recruiter was out for the day. I agreed to call back the next day and scuttled back across the street to endure another day of chilly tedium.

The next day, which was the last day of my two-week temporary assignment, I visited the coffee shop just as soon as Business Hours for Normal People began and called the agency again. The Gatekeeper told me that my recruiter was, again, unavailable. I explained that I needed to talk to her rather urgently, because I did not want to accept permanent employment at my assignment and expected them to offer. “I need some guidance here!” I cried.

“What’s the job?” asked the Gatekeeper. I told her who I had been working for over the past two weeks. “Oh, no one wants that job,” said the Gatekeeper.

“Oh great,” I said. “So you have done this before.” She put me on hold and came back with another recruiter, who is also the president of the company.

“You don’t want the job? Why not,” he barked.

“Because it’s not related to entertainment,” I replied.

“They do film financing, don’t they?”

“NO!” I snapped.

I was instructed to demure as much as possible and tell the hedge fund that I would need to think about any offers, and that they would also need to talk to my Recruiter before I could give any answer. But as the day wore on, I started to realize how dumb this plan was.

So when the Junior Hedger in Charge of Administrative Hires brought me up into the lofty conference room to talk to me about how the job was going, I made bold to tell him I didn’t think it was for me. He didn’t seem surprised. I guess someone had also told him that no one wanted that job. Probably all the dozens of temps from the agency that came before me. So I gave him my parking pass, and headed home on the 405 North.

I didn’t know how I was going to stay afloat, but I was buoyed up by the thought that the very next day would be Thanksgiving. And the day after that, the holiday season at the Store would begin. I tightened my belt, slipped on the Sperrys, and hoped that those extra holiday hours would pull me through at least until January.