To think that if I'm down as unavailable they shouldnt be bothering me?!

[MintyChapstick]

I work as a TA for a supply agency. We have an online availability calendar where we put when we can and can't work and the people in the office are supposed to be working from that. Last week I was really ill, I suspsect I may have had a mild dose of the flu and I had to phone in sick on Monday because I was booked in for the afternoon at a school. I then went back to bed and was fast asleep, feeling like shit, when my phone started to ring. I answered it and it was the agency phoning me asking me if I'd be well for the rest of the week! They also prcoceeded to start asking me if I'd considered an ongoing placement for after Easter! Bare in my mind I was fucking delirious. I said I didn't know, hung up and then had various different people phoning me from there all afternoon but ignored them all. As it happened I did work, Weds, Thursday and Friday for them.

So today Ive put myself down as unavaibale as I have a few things I need to do, Ive picked up my phone and have just discovered about five missed calls, texts and several answering machine messages asking me to go to a particular school. Now I'm down as unavailable, so why are they fucking phoning me? For all they know I could be at a funeral, in a hospital appointment having a minor op anything, but yet are they still sodding phoning me!

AIBU to think they are being out of order? I love the flexibiity and diversity of supply but I'm sick of the aggression and pushiness from the agency, the guilt trips and often sometimes even blatant rudeness when I say no to something. I wouldn't dream of phoning someone and hassling them when they were ill, but that's exactly what they did to me last week.

They are out of order, but a lot of agencies operate like this.

My friends are on agencies for SW, Teaching, TA, Support Work and they get hassled in the same way.

Um, surely you're saying you're unavailable for work at that time, not that you can't take a phone call about work at a future date?

I've just listened to one of the messages "we can see you are down as available for today". Erm, no, I'm not! So they are not even reading the bloody availability calendar properly! I'm not phoning them back yet on principal. I find it hard to believe that I am the only person they have got who they can ring today.

No Reggae read the thread, they are asking me to work today!

YANBU. Recruitment workers seem to have the skin of rhinos.

In my temping days, I had to cancel a day's work as a receptionist but gave them a week's notice.

I told them I had an extremely important appointment but they still tried to guilt me into going by saying the company had specifically asked for me and that we would be letting them down.

My life had no meaning for them, I was a means to an end.

Yes, I'm familiar with the "they've asked for you specifically thing" as well, and then you get there and they had said no such thing! It's almost like my needs and wants are irrelevant to them, all they care about is getting their commission.

I've met people from my agency on the circuit, and they all tell similar stories. Some have even had full blown rows with their advisors.

Well, the first time you were a bit U if you just phoned in sick for that day; employers generally like to know if people think they'll be ill for several more days or if they'll be back sooner (I do appreciate it's not always that easy to predict though!). Also, it's not very U of them to be trying to get an idea of whether you'd be available for something after Easter.

But the second time, when you put yourself down as unavailable and they actually said 'we can see you are down as available for today' –no, you're not being U and when you feel better you need to call them and say you're concerned about the functionality of the calendar and why.

I will say, though, as a freelancer myself, on the upside at least you're in demand!

Get well soon.

If you answer the first call and talk to them, you wont receive all the other texts, answerphone messages and missed calls.

I get that OnlyLovers. It was the fact that I told them I didn't know when I'd feel better and then they carried on hassling me all afternoon when they knew I was sick, that annoyed me.

Ah, sorry, I didn't get that you'd told them you didn't know. And no, of course they should have stopped hassling you after you'd called in sick.

No more calls yet anyway. Maybe they've realised their mistake? Either way, I'm currently looking at the website of another agency and am considering signing up with them as they seem to treat their candidates a lot better. There's no law to say I can't be signed with two.

Maybe they've realised their mistake?

Hope so. But yes, there is more than one agency and it sounds as though you're good and popular enough that another one would be glad to take you on.

It isn't just agencies that do this, though. My DD (19) is a full time student who has a part-time job in a restaurant. She booked holiday from her job a while back, it was approved, it was down on the staff rota as "(DD's name) - holiday".

Her manager, who'd approved the holiday (the first she's booked in almost 2 and a half years of working there) rang her every day asking if she'd work and then got shirty with her when she pointed out that she'd booked holiday so that she could revise for her end of year exams. I suggested, when she was complaining to me about this, that perhaps they were short-staffed, only to be told that they weren't: the manager simply can't be bothered to read the rota properly Fortunately for DD, perhaps, she's used to the manager's lack of ability and took a photograph of the rota with her approved holiday on as soon as it went up to forward onto him (repeatedly) every time he called to ask where she was/why she wasn't working/could she work.

Well, don't worry; after a few days of this I am sure they won't bother to disturb you at all.

What do you mean, Goblin?

Ooh, snippy, Minty.

Goblin, that's a bit nasty isn't it?