The Red Guide to Temp Agencies

Review of Olsten Staffing Service (Midtown NY)

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310 Madison Avenue
NYC, NY 10017

Total time with agency:
2 years

Wait for first assignment:

Average wait between assignments:

Last five jobs:

Job Title	Length	Client	Hourly Wage	Typical of agency?
	6 Days	Kinderhook Computer Consultant	10
	1 Days	Bristols MyersSquipps(Clariol)	8
	3 Months	Coopers & Lybrand Accountants	8
	5 Hours	Baras & Jersey Textiles	7
	6 Hours	NY Life Insurance	6

Tests given:

Payroll policies:
On-site time sheet pickup:
Direct deposit of payroll checks:
Free check cashing at agency's bank:

Benefits:
Medical insurance:
Dental insurance:
Paid vacation:
Transportation allowance:
Entertainment allowance:
Matching contributions:

Comments:
This was my first time temping. Olsten's offered me a "job" almost right away. I had just completed taking computer training classes. They offered me a 4 day job at a computer consultants doing excel. The pay was $10. Which is very low, but I was very eager to start appling my newly acquired computer skills. I thought if I did a great job, they would see I was worth more than $10 an hour and my salary would incrementally go up. The job was extended 2 days and everyone was happy, except that the job was more like data entry then word processing.

Susan, my counselor, continued to keep me busy, but with really crappy 1 or 2 day jobs and they always were data entry or worse just answering a telephone. But the worst was everytime Susan called she kept lowering my pay rate even though I insisted I would not work for less than $10 an hour. It was as if she just pretended not to hear me.

Finally, they called me in the morning offering me a job that would start as soon as I got there and would end at 5:00. They told me if I hurried I could get there right away. The company, NY Life Insurance, is only 20 blocks from where I live. Please hurry they begged, we really need you to help us out. I accepted the job and agreed to rush over there. THEN they told me the topper - the job paid $6 an hour stuffing envelopes!! Not only that, they told me to make sure I dress corporate. (How on earth do they expect someone to be able to afford to dress corporate at 6 bucks an hour) Believe it or not, I actually went to the job. After that I wanted nothing to do with them. Even though I told them repeatedly I wasn't availbale, Susan for days kept calling my house with crappy little jobs telling me they were great. I felt like they must of thought they had found the ultimate sucker.

I think they lure you in right away with a good job (though I consider $10 an hour pathetic) and then switch to crappy little jobs once they know they've got you. But worst, I repeatedly asked for a word processing job and only got jobs answering a telephone.

I believe if they treat temps like a dime a dozen, we as temps should treat temp agencies as a dime dozen. There are plenty of temp agencies out there.

Reporter:

Email:

Date:
Mon Sep 29 22:59:22 EST 1997

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The Red Guide to Temp Agencies is copyright 1994-2004 by Angus B. Grieve-Smith.
It may be reproduced in its entirety, but may not be sold for profit or reproduced in part without written permission of the Editor.

Feel free to email me with questions or comments. Please do NOT email me your resume. I am not an employer, and I cannot get you a job. If you send me your resume anyway, I will report it to your internet provider. My email address is grvsmth@panix.com.