Yesterday I submitted an application to our local government for temporary work, I have also submitted my CV to a couple of agencies and have interviews with them on Monday.

Has anyone here tried 'temping' and if so can you give me some idea of what is involved? Are you normally dropped in at the deep end, do they expect you to know everything? Any information regarding your temping experiences will be welcome. How do the other staff treat temps?

Aaaagh, all this employment thing is alien to me, I gave up work in early 1975 then did some voluntary work. It was one of these voluntary posts which turned into a proper job, I didn't have to apply for it and the job sort of evolved, I did my own thing for ten years!

I intend be straight with them, telling them about my health issues. The form I had to complete for the government HR department asked for health information, any serious conditions, operations etc so I listed them and said I need time off for blood tests etc. The government has a good reputation for employing people with disabilities so they might make an effort for me.

Tips on dressing for the interviews with the agencies? For work I tended to wear soft suits (not tailored) and shirts plus jewellery like pearls, smart, nothing jangly.

I used to temp a lot, mostly clerical but also some light assembly-type jobs. Most of the jobs were good experiences, but there were a few losers, and once I called my agency half way through the first day and told them to get me the heck out of there. (How do psychotic people make it to the top of the business food chain? )
I don't recall ever being treated badly by co-workers. There are ocassionally some that just ignore you, but most of them are nice and generally helpful; they have no reason not to be, really.
Bosses, on the other hand, seem to run the gamut from very nice and helpful to dismissive and condescending.
Oddly enough, one thing I did notice is that the length of a job tended to influence how they thought of you. For instance, if the job was to last some weeks or months, I was treated just like a regular employee and it was assumed that I was well qualified for the job. If it was short term, perhaps a few days long, for some reason they seemed to assume that I was less qualified somehow and couldn't do anything more than stuff envelopes. I have no idea why this was, but I ran into that attitude frequently.
Oh, and beware that you wind up actually doing the job you were hired to do. I found companies frequently tried to get me to do things that weren't in the job description that was provided to my agency. Once, I was hired to create a filing system, and they had me moving office furniture from room to room in order to have some place to put all these things they wanted filed.
Anyway, I don't know if temp agencies are the same there as here, but those are some of my experiences. Good lucK!

If anyone wants me to shift furniture I shall just whip up my blouse and show them my scar!

I worked for a temp agency the summer after I got married, mostly for one or two week periods to cover secretaries who were on vacation. My experiences were pretty favorable, with lots of nice people to show me the ropes. The only downside of it was that sometimes several weeks would go by between jobs, resulting in a not-so-steady cash flow!

I have never worked as a temp, but I worked one place that used a lot of them. I think they are less likely to throw you off the deep end, by assuming you already know everything, and more likely to assume you don't know anything! Some places may be quite lonely, I've seen people act as if the temp is just not there.
Make sure things are spelled out for you - I remember we had one very young girl answering the phones one time, who called me as I was waiting for the elvator - "Do you know if I get a break? It's just - I really need to go to the bathroom". (I was very young, too, at the time, and I guess didn't look threatening).
Another confusing thing is that in a bigger place, the management don't know the flunkies, and will just assume you know who they are "If anybody calls for me, I'm gone for the day" sort of thing, as they go out the door, and you are wondering "Yes, but who ARE you?".

As a grown woman with a certain amount of self confidence (or at least the experience to fake it) you will probably do fine, better than the scared young things that most of our temps were.

Some places here hire temps for low-level jobs with the anticipation that it might eventually turn into a permanent position, thus saving the company the time and expense of interviewing people for low-experience jobs. I "temped" for a while, while I was looking for a new job a few years ago (a few? Eesh, it's been 6 years already!) and had one very nice experience and one very bad one. I got a job at an insurance company where they hired temps to fill permanent positions, it was a terrible job, the permanent employees there were snotty to the temps (even if we MIGHT stay on, and even if THEY got their jobs through the same temp agency!) and I actually didn't last there, which was OK since I was temping. Then I got another job as receptionist for an occupational health clinic and after 3 months they let me go because they'd actually hired a permanent employee. Two weeks later I got my present job, and one week after that I got a call from that clinic saying they'd made a huge mistake firing me and would I consider coming back full time as a permanent employee. So, it had it's ups and downs for me.

I've done a lot of temping, a lot for government departments. As the others have said, you get the goods and you get the bads. I'm not sure if the kind of government jobs you'd be looking at work in any way like the Public Service here, but I've found the most common request to be along the lines of "take a break, read a magazine for half an hour, you don't need to work all the time and you're making the rest of us look bad!"

With gov stuff here, there are so many security checks and passes for various areas, parking permits, sign this, initial this, that the first day seems to be taken up with "housekeeping" (even if you're only there for a week!). Usually you'll get the most junior member of the permanent staff showing you round on all this, and they will tell you all sorts of handy stuff (and quite often a lot more about the various personal habits and associations of other staff members than you could ever want to know, too!).

The biggest thing I've learned is to ask zillions of questions, big, small, stupid, repetitive, doesn't matter. So many times I've thought something was screamingly obvious but I'd better just check and found out that they do something in a completely counterintuitive way, but it's their way. Oh, and ask the same question of different people too...

I've also been on the other side and supervised temps, and the first thing I tell them too is to ask me any question, no matter how stupid it seems. "I'd rather you asked me 15 times and got it right than not at all and got it wrong". This might stem from one particular guy I had filing for me - all I asked him to do was move the contents of one drawer at the bottom of the cabinet to the top drawer of the next one to make more room. He must have seen something he didn't like, and decided he'd rearrange just that section of files "the right way". Two days and about five attempts later...

But as the others say, I'm sure you'll do fine Sue. And remember, as Lothruin says, the beauty of temping is that if you don't like it, you can leave!

As you know, I am a trainer and I teach Medical Reception (including Customer Service, Front Office Skills, Audiotyping and Medical Terminology). The way our classes are timetabled means that I teach roughly every other week. During the weeks inbetween when I am not teaching, I do temp work as a temporary Medical Secretary (reception work and/or typing).

I really love it as all the jobs are short term, so if I don't like the workplace, I know I am not going to be stuck there very long. However, in the main, I've been lucky and have almost always had great places to work. I've been temping for ten years now and I can honestly say that there is only one doctor's surgery that I would refuse to return to because I was not treated with respect. Most places, however, treat me like the answer to a prayer.

I have a lot of experience and am not afraid to be thrown in the deep end, I am very quick on the uptake and I am not afraid to ask if I don't know something. If I don't know how something is done in a particular office, and there is no-one to ask, I either just don't do it (if there is no immediate need for me to do it) or I use my common sense to do it and leave a "trail" (or a note) so that when the regular staff are there, they can see what I did.

I know this does not sound very modest, but in all honesty, I am very good at what I do, and I work really hard, so I have a lot of regular clients who always ask for me if they need a temp. I often end up going to places on a regular basis. I've always had good feedback reports going back to my employment agency, so that means they usually give me the choice jobs.

In fact, most of my temp jobs end in an offer of permanent employment, but I don't take them because I enjoy my training and it pays really well. It does give me a nice feeling though, to know that if I ever decided to leave my current position, I would not have to worry about unemployment because I have so many good contacts.

Temp jobs are often very easy because, if they know you are a temp, they don't bother training you to do the hard stuff. Another great thing about temp jobs is that they expose you to using a lot of different computer packages and pieces of equipment, so that when you go for a job interview for a permanent job, you can add all those to your list of skills.

Some staff won't bother to get to know you as a person, or indulge in social chit-chat, because they know you aren't going to be there long, but my experience has been that they've always been courteous. I don't think I've ever worked with anyone who has viewed me as a threat. As a temp, you are somewhat removed from the day-to-day politics or power plays within the office.

I am currently working through a temp agency. I like it and have had mostly good jobs. Its nice for the fact that there is no obligation on your part to keep a job that you hate. You also get to work for companies that you never thought you would want to work at. I am currently an administrative assistant for an insurance company and I surprisingly like it. I am hoping that I get a permanent status.
Also, my favorite thing to say when I mess up something is "Well I am only a temp,what do you expect?" Of course, I say this jokingly!

I had the two interviews today, one good one lousy.

First one was young woman, she was informative, optimistic, helpful, asked about Funtrivia!, told me without being asked what the likely pay would be, made notes about my requirement to have a blood test every few weeks. She asked if I was prepared to travel 9 miles from home, rather than just the 7 as there could be a suitable job for me there! Then she gave me a typing test. I was with her about an hour.

Second one was also young, asked just about nothing, didn't volunteer any information, I didn't do a typing test and I was out in ten minutes. Hmmmm.

In the principality of Monaco, which I imagine is similar to Jersey, they must legally give any qualified candidates an interview, even if they have no intention whatsoever of hiring you. You must legally go to interview to keep your status current and receive benefits.

I remember a few interviews where I got all dressed up, found childcare if necessary, then, showed up to some totally unsuitable job at which someone looked very put upon at having to receive all these candidates would go through a few of the job requirements, but you could tell it was just for the show.

Many of them were thinly disguised searches for someone to show customers or clients around the place (which is why I was interviewed for customer service and the languages of the principality) but, well, they clearly weren't looking for a more matronly type of woman but a younger person. Many of them probably already had the person in question hired.
There was a hiring incentive going then too, so, some of those employers were going for that ring on the carousel.
I found it very discouraging and a waste of time.
I once had an interview for a temping agency where they refused to tell me what the job would be, who I would work with and what product they dealt with. It was in a sterile boardroom and they would not even show me the desk where I was to work. Honestly, it felt worse than sitting on my thumbs! They required the person to have the British secretarial qualifications yet, be French.

Temporary jobs are the very nature of American life though.
I've done plenty of them. I think I'd be reassured in a place like Jersey or even Monaco that the legislation did protect me and my status as job seeker.

I sure hope one of these works out.