Some Workers Choose Temporary Employment

The only personal items on Sue Libby’s desk are a water bottle, a pen and her afternoon Diet Coke. There are no knickknacks or photos of her husband or her cockatiel.

That’s just the way she likes it. She’s never in one workplace long enough to settle in.

It may sound like an oxymoron, but the 43-year-old Spokane woman can accurately describe herself as a “permanent temporary employee.”

After years of being stuck in what she said were dead-end jobs as a receptionist and in accounts receivable, she decided in July 1994 to register with Humanix as a temp.

Since then, Libby figures she’s been on 50 assignments ranging in length from four hours to 13 weeks. Her gregarious personality and computer skills have led half of those employers to offer her permanent jobs. Most of the jobs pay $7 to $9 per hour for 30 to 40 hours work per week.

“How many people can say that for the last four years, they’ve enjoyed their job about 95 percent of the time?” Libby asks. “I like what I do, I’m good at it, and people like me for the most part.”

Libby has stuck with temping as a career for several reasons. Learning new things prevents her from getting in a rut. If co-workers are irritable, she knows she doesn’t have to put up with it for very long. Office politics usually don’t work against her. She gets medical insurance reimbursement, pro-rated on how much she works, and a matching 401k contribution from Humanix.

Maybe the biggest perk for her is that she gets to take a few days or a week off between assignments if she chooses to catch up on household errands or visit friends for lunch.

“People get mired down in a permanent position because it’s comfortable and they think they can’t do without the pay,” Libby said. “Not to say the pay is bad, but I don’t feel like I’ve had to do without anything.”

Libby’s husband, Darrell, is a computer technician for Spokane School District 81. They have no children, which Libby admits makes it financially easier to get by.

She admits her arrangement may not be for everybody.

Jeff McGillivrae can relate. At 47, McGillivrae was a controller-level accountant with a master’s degree, a Marine background, 18 years of experience, and drawing an annual salary in the mid-$40,000s. He was left jobless in March, when Allied Security in Spokane sold the division he oversaw, and finished the accounting for the sale.

McGillivrae had landed his position at Allied Security in 1992 after working as a temporary accountant in Spokane for Humanix. He had just relocated from Phoenix to get married, and used temping for a year to get his foot in the door.

It was rough, because at the time, accounting firms were much more skeptical of office temps, and only paid him $6.50 an hour. Eight years later, this time with the specialized temporary service Accountemps, McGillivrae is making about $13 an hour. It’s still far from what he was accustomed to, but it helps during his job search.

To him, it’s a sign of the growing acceptance and confidence Spokane employers have in skilled temps.

“I think it’s excellent because you get great exposure,” McGillivrae said. “If you’re looking for permanent employment, your name is out there, and so are your qualifications.”

Employers say temping is common for skilled professionals who have recently relocated here and don’t have many contacts in their fields. It’s often the gateway to getting a full-time job, they say.

Most temps have the same hopeful philosophy, and it comes true for 40 to 50 percent of them. Many of the rest are people always looking for part-time work, said Tom Droz, Spokane franchise owner of Manpower.

For now, Libby is content temping and says she’s loyal toward Humanix.

Some assignments leave her thinking she’d never go back, but at the good companies she’s worked for, she leaves thank-you notes.

The comfort and confidence levels Libby has now seem light years removed from her beginnings. Some of her family members grumbled when she quit her job at Whitworth College and took a pay cut as a temp.

“I was scared spitless,” Libby said. “I had never just quit a job. I had always had another job lined up, or got laid off. It took a couple weeks (of temping) to get established. And you have to be really assertive to let them know you’re available and be sure to do a good job so they’ll ask for you again.”