Strive4impact Main Page

Today they told me that I'm going to be replaced by someone next week.

I was fairly certain this would be the case.

I am, after all, a temporary employee brought in to handle the time in-between someone moving on to a new job and the time someone gets hired to take over the position.

"We wish we could keep you on longer, but we've hired someone to take the position."

It wouldn't be a big deal, except that I like it here at this assignment. The people are nice, the environment is friendly, and everyone has told me that I have been doing a good job and that they were likely to hire me on for a longer term.

For the record, I didn't think I would actually be hired for the job.

I'm a temp. Temp is short for temporary. I get that, and I know that coming into this situation.
But everyone around me from this company telling me that I was probably going to end up in the position I'm temping for gave me a small hope that I would be here longer-term.

Hope is a powerful thing.

It also gave me motivation to want to work hard. I've been getting as much done as I can in as short a time as possible, to show my abilities, for the potential to be given more opportunity.
Motivation toward a bigger goal is a powerful thing.

The specialization and segmentation of job roles within companies (in most people's lives?) is absolutely fascinating. Some people literally just won't do something themselves if it falls even the slightest bit outside of their job role. Is that because the more you show you know, the more you are requested (and used) to do things (and the more that is expected of you,) often without a corresponding increase in pay (or even acknowledgment)?

That was my experience when I worked in the job world.

I refer to Theirs as They, you refer to theirs as my.

I was talking to someone who was fired from a company (or, to use the PC term, was made redundant).

But this individual still talked about the company like they were part of it.

"Well, when I worked there, we found that our customers would talk to us if we... "

It made me want to grab this person and go:

Hey? Hello? Are you paying attention to the world around you?

It's not your company.

Is your name on the building? Then it's not your company.

Didn't they fire you?

Isn't that why you don't work there anymore?

You are expendable.

Listen to the word: Ex - spend - able. You are able to (and likely to) become an ex source of spending for the company you currently work for.

When times get tough, they will drop you. Most companies attempt to be caring about it, but many let employees go at the drop of a hat. Because when it comes down to it, as an employee (in most cases), you are not a profit center. Instead, you are an expense.

Ask yourself these questions:
- Am I actively recruiting new sources of revenue for the company I work for every day?
- Am I actively inventing new products or services (not just supporting them by creating graphics or campaigns, but actually inventing them) every day?

If you can't answer either of those questions with a yes, then you are an expense, and you are expendable.

I avoid the words always and never, but it's hard to imagine a time or situation that it won't always be that way.

Job security? Nope. Probably never again in westernized countries.