Have I been completely unprofessional?

[c1JSU]

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?!

Your OP is very unclear. Had your permanent contract started yet. You sound like a nightmare employee.

I remember someone doing this years ago. The person couldn't believe anyone would quit like that. The person CC's boss and agency night before.

So unprofessional.

And for those saying fuck it they would have done the same to them. Well not really unless the place that op worked at wanted rid of them. Decent agency staff, after a while got staff numbers direct for the odd day here and there. When I moved companies, I took those numbers with me.

It can also bite you in the arse like it did with our one. The job offer was withdrawn. And if yours is one of those that talk a lot, and you know about someone in Manchester even though you are in London, you've never met but everyone knows them. Then you're a bit fucked.

Who wants to employ someone that flaky they quit without even 24 hours notice just because they fancied something else?

Really not on at all, OP.
It comes across as self serving and unprofessional..But you know that now.

Leaving someone in the lurch like that won't make them feel kindly disposed to you should you ever need an agency again..Or a reference.

@strawberrypip I just really don't get that attitude I'm afraid. The OP gives no impression that the agency or employer did anything wrong. But she should stick the middle finger up to them just in case they might have, one day, in a hypothetical situation been callous towards her?

Although I have done it myself, told the boss to go fuck themselves and walked out. They were just short-term jobs that gave me money lol and no relevance to my career to impact it negatively.

" not saying bridges havent been burnt but OP did nothing the agency wouldn't have done first if they had no longer needed them.

Well, you don't know that for the start. And burning bridges is exactly the point here. OP can forget ever working through that agency again.

Hugely unprofessional. Expect to be blacklisted by that agency.

I disagree with the majority here. The whole point if temp contacts Is you can have the flexibility if you need it and the employer does too.
I left a temporary job once with no notice because the were horrible. Didn’t feel guilty in the slightest.

Unprofessional yes but who cares, life is too short. As a company they have decided to offer a temporary to permanent position and not put all their eggs in one basket by offering a permanent from the get go so they can hardly take the moral high ground.

People saying the OP's behaviour was unprofessional, I can only assume that you've never worked for an agency

Agencies regularly give workers no notice at all that their job is over. It works both ways

@Burnthurst187

People saying the OP's behaviour was unprofessional, I can only assume that you've never worked for an agency

Agencies regularly give workers no notice at all that their job is over. It works both ways

That may be so but it doesn't stop OP's behaviour being unprofessional.

We have no idea what the employer or agencies ethics are but it doesn't really matter because it's not a game of even stevens, the world of work is all about reputation and integrity.

For the record I ran a team and occasionally we used a temp agencies to source temp staff. I respected them just like any employee, discussed what sort of time frames we were looking for in advance and caught up with the temp for one to ones like anyone else where we discussed expectations and I gave her loads of notice of when we'd likely no longer need her. It's just common courtesy.

Have also been on the receiving end of people not turning up etc (one once arrived late because she wanted to watch a certain tv programme that morning! For a 9am office job) and it's really stressful for everyone if it leaves you short. That particular temp I did let go "without notice" I suppose but I did sit her down and explain we wouldn't be needing her to work anymore because we couldn't rely on her to turn up when needed and her performance wasn't good either which we'd already discussed with her over the last few days.

I wouldn't worry yourself over it. Agencies let staff go with zero notice all the time, it may have been a little unprofessional but at the end of the day who cares?

OP, out of interest, what field of work are you in? Is it something that is highly skilled or something anyone could do?

@sqirrelfriends

I wouldn't worry yourself over it. Agencies let staff go with zero notice all the time, it may have been a little unprofessional but at the end of the day who cares?

The employer and their team who may be left short and very stressed, the temp agency who will now have a bad reputation with the employer?

Of course it might be that it's not an especially high pressure workplace and the employer won't actually be inconvenienced too much, but I know I've personally had to cancel things like my own birthday dinner when staff haven't turned up and I've needed to work over time. These weren't temps though and I also see that if an employer is really desperate it is a bit precarious for them to be using temp staff on a more casual basis. I still think it's just manners to give notice though

In the temp world I think you were reasonable if not accommodating. I remember turning up for work on Monday only to answer the door buzzer to the “new temp from [my agency]”. They’d replaced me and nobody told me. Including the agency who swear they’d left me a voicemail over the weekend...

People saying the OP's behaviour was unprofessional, I can only assume that you've never worked for an agency

Wrong. I've worked for agencies, they are clear on notice periods. My last one was one business day either side.

I worked as a temp for years - I never did this! The only reason an agency would stop the work at such short notice was if the employer didn't want you back!

Poor form.

I temped all through my early twenties and NEVER did this.

Given the specific situation OP is in, I remembered her so I too did an AS to check my memory, she won't really care what we, either of her ex employers or the agency think of her.

At some point such behaviour will have consequences, but it probably won't be this week.

Considering that the OP is raking it in at everyone else's expense (receiving 80% furlough from her previous job that she's never going back to, Wiley also taking up temp jobs that other people who've actually lost theirs could be doing!) I think her leaving is probably best for everyone!

The employer may find someone actually committed to them who needs and wants the job!