Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Work

Chat with other users about all things related to working life on our Work forum.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Original poster

Have I been completely unprofessional?

145 replies

c1JSU · 10/08/2020 10:01

I secured a temp to perm role. A few days in I realised it wasn’t for me, so I resumed my job hunt while continuing my temp to perm position. I received a job offer for another role on Friday just gone. I mulled it over the weekend and last night decided that yes, I am going to accept and in fact I think I will be very good at it. I emailed the recruitment agency that I am temping for at 10:30pm last night, which admittedly is rather late. I thanked them for the position I had been temping in but as I would shortly be starting a new role I won’t waste anymore of their time as I know they need to start recruiting again. I start my new job a week today so this week will be a week off for me, so therefore this morning I did not have an alarm set. I woke at 9:30am to 9 missed calls from the agency and a text message telling me off for ghosting then! I appreciate I gave them short notice that I wouldn’t be in today, but I was only temping and didn’t have to give a specified notice period. I thought if anything leaving quickly after I knew I wouldn’t be staying would be a good thing-it means the company wouldn’t continue to waste their time training me for me to then up and leave. Have I handled this all wrong?!

OP posts:

CantSleepClownsWillEatMe · 10/08/2020 10:57

You didn’t give them short notice, you gave them no notice! Yes, you’ve been completely unprofessional. If your new role doesn’t work out for you it’s unlikely this agency will touch you with a barge pole.

Generally speaking it doesn’t really matter if the role you’re doing is temporary or lower on the ladder - it’s never a good idea to burn bridges which is what you’ve done with the agency and anyone who knows you in the company you’ve been working in.

Trust me, these things have the potential to bite you in the arse down the line. I know somebody who did this a number of times over a short period in our industry. The thing is that while it’s a big industry it’s also in some ways a small industry in the sense that people (at all levels) move from company to company and so know lots of people in the different companies. I know of three jobs she’s applied for since where although she’s actually very capable, she just wasn’t considered because of how she’d behaved in the past.

queenofknives · 10/08/2020 10:58

Yes it was unprofessional but as long as you don't need a reference or want to work with that agency again, fair enough.

I temped for a number of years and overall had a good experience, but once or twice I did walk away from a job that I hated. That's the perk of temping - you don't have the security of a contract, but you have the freedom to walk away if you need to. Personally I would have gone in for the Monday and let them know I wouldn't be back the next day. I might even have worked the rest of the week. But it is up to you. I would say, though, that as a temp, your reputation is everything - I was never out of employment as companies would request me back all the time, and even find work for me to keep me on, because I was hard working and professional. They always had horrendous stories of temps who were absolutely useless and let them down - I guess the next temp will be hearing that story about you!

Hope your new job works out, and enjoy your week off :)

BlusteryShowers · 10/08/2020 10:59

I'm glad I don't work with you @strawberrypip . She was being paid to do a job, she wasn't volunteering. It's common decency to at least turn up and explain the situation. They may have said she wasn't needed the rest of the week. Someone else could now be having an awful day trying to cover her role through no fault of their own.

GrumpyHoonMain · 10/08/2020 11:00

Legally you don’t need to give any notice and chances are if the company wanted to get rid of you they wouldn’t have given you notice anyway. Stick to your guns.

amusedbush · 10/08/2020 11:10

If your contract didn't have a notice period then legally you've done nothing wrong, but morally it was really bad. I was temping ten years ago and I'd always give a week's notice. You've probably left them short-staffed and you'll definitely not be able to use that agency again.

CantSleepClownsWillEatMe · 10/08/2020 11:10

@frazzledasarock Where are you getting the impression this was a zero hours contract? Op says it was a temp to permanent role which usually means temporary with a view to making it permanent.

I’m surprised at the posters who basically think meh, screw them, you owe them nothing. It’s nothing to do with loyalty and everything to do with demonstrating you’re a responsible person capable of working in a professional environment. That’s not something that just kicks in when you’re making the big bucks!

I can only guess some of the posters here aren’t especially familiar with applying for jobs, getting decent references and establishing a good professional reputation .

TitsOutForHarambe · 10/08/2020 11:10

It wasn't in any way unprofessional to accept the new job starting next week. You wanted a perm job but they made you temp first so this is their own problem which they really should have considered when making the job temp to perm. You have no obligation to stay on permanently as you aren't permanent, as per their request.

I do think that it was very unprofessional to inform the temp agency at 10.30pm the night before a shift that you wouldn't be coming in the next day. However the agency recruiter should have passed the message on as soon as they arrived in the office (or logged on if working from home). If they don't log on and check messages until after 9am then that is going to cause a lot of problems for their clients. How do they deal with sickness and such? Someone should be checking that inbox before shifts are supposed to start so that they can inform clients of any last minute changes and try and secure replacements as soon as possible.

If this was one of my vendors I'd be much more pissed off with them rather than you (although for the record I would remember your name and not have you back again). Some temps are flakey, it comes with the territory, but it's really not good enough for me to be calling someone at 9.30am trying to find out where they are when they have emailed the agency the night before saying they won't be coming in.

And to everyone saying she should have given a week's notice - no she shouldn't. She is under no obligation. If they need a week's notice from someone then they shouldn't be using a temp. The agency is expected to sort someone else out to fill in these gaps. That's how it works.

Butchyrestingface · 10/08/2020 11:13

Are you really young (like, 16)? Was this your first ever job?

If not, I pity your new employers.

And you've burned your bridges with that agency forevermore.

Lookatthat · 10/08/2020 11:15

That’s awful. You can’t honestly have thought you were doing them a favour by leaving them short staffed and having to start a new recruitment process all at the same time.

LillianBland · 10/08/2020 11:19

OP hasn’t been back in over an hour. I think she’s resigned from the thread, without notice. 😁

GreyGardens88 · 10/08/2020 11:20

If it was the other way around and the temp agency didn't need you anymore they would not hesitate to let you go with no notice whatsoever. So no I don't think you did anything wrong OP

strawberrypip · 10/08/2020 11:21

@BlusteryShowers you honestly think they would have been much better the other way round? if they wanted OP gone then she would have been. companies dont give a shit about you on an individual level.

Butchyrestingface · 10/08/2020 11:31

OP hasn’t been back in over an hour. I think she’s resigned from the thread, without notice. 😁

Probably rolled over in bed and gone back to sleep.

AncoraAmarena · 10/08/2020 11:32

This was a temp to perm job, so the implication is that is could have/would have gone permanent.

You gave no notice at all regardless, yes you have been unprofessional.

Annonymiss123 · 10/08/2020 11:33

Extremely unprofessional.

SockYarn · 10/08/2020 11:34

Totally unprofessional. Calling at 10.30pm to say you won't be in the following morning is pretty bad.

Whether there will be any fallout from that - probably not, in this situation.

unnervingrabble · 10/08/2020 11:34

Yes, it's unprofessional. Don't expect the agency to ever find you work again.

JustMeAndMyTins · 10/08/2020 11:35

Of course this was not professional! Or courteous, for that matter.

I would have worked a week's notice but if I really didn't want to (accepting my own lack of professionalism in the process) I would have at least gone in today!

Nomorepies · 10/08/2020 11:37

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ on the poster's request.

IndecentFeminist · 10/08/2020 11:37

Wow. Have you not worked/changed jobs before?

SleepingStandingUp · 10/08/2020 11:39

[quote strawberrypip]@BlusteryShowers you honestly think they would have been much better the other way round? if they wanted OP gone then she would have been. companies dont give a shit about you on an individual level.

OP found a job she wants that is permanent, that she probably has much more security and rights in and believes she would be good at. good for her, she has every right to use her time as she wants. she wants a week off to prepare for her new job so that's what she should do. the agency dont own her and should be well aware of the potential cons of zero hour contracts as well as the pros for them as an employer. a quick turnover is one of the cons. deal with it.[/quote]
Op might not have done anything officially wrong but it's still unprofessional and could come back to view her off this job doesn't pan out.
You're arguement of "bit they didn't say she couldn't" is like me saying "there's zero dress code for work, is it unprofessional to go in in a slit to the thigh miniskirt and boob tube when I'm customer facing. It night be technically permitted bit it's still none the done thing

PintOfGin · 10/08/2020 11:39

I think it was unprofessional BUT having used some of these temp agencies in the past they wouldn’t hesitate to do the same thing to you if they suddenly no longer needed you, and their defence to that shitty behaviour is that that is the purpose/beauty of a temp contract. So I don’t think you were being massively unreasonable, however it could have been handled better.

Sparrow234 · 10/08/2020 11:40

I get you’re temping so you don’t owe them anything but you can’t just not turn up on Monday morning.
You should have emailed or called this morning and said you won’t be back tomorrow and that would have given them the day to sort stuff out.

BumbleBeeeeeee · 10/08/2020 11:41

So it's okay for agencies and employers to treat temps like shit but not the other way round? If OP was being dropped by the agency she would get no notice at all. They'll find someone else, don't lose any sleep over it!

Butchyrestingface · 10/08/2020 11:45

I know it's not really considered naice to AS previous posts but the OP appears to have gone.

The OP posted elsewhere that she was on a 12 week trial period but the agency had already told her the company were planning to keep her on and offer her a permanent post. She is also still being furloughed at 80% by her previous employer.

OP also stated:

I suppose in theory as I am only temporary I could just jack it in tomorrow

How prophetic.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6