Blazers & Body Spray - A Day in the Life of a Temp!

Life as a temp in Vancouver was anything but predictable. One day I was answering phones in a fancy high-rise, the next I was mopping floors in my best blazer—and learning the hard way about the city’s no-scent policy! Let's take a look, shall we?!

So, things were starting to fall into place. I had a home, I had friends, I had several jobs! Everything was looking very promising. My next step on the road was to try to change those two—and sometimes three—part-time jobs into one full-time job. It was hard juggling my schedule, making sure I didn’t double-book myself for a shift or arrive late to the second job of the day! The only constant was working in the shop; all the others were temporary. I learned a lot during this time, doing things I had never done before. Some of these jobs were, as I mentioned before, working in an office—mostly filing and sorting documents. This was easy enough and didn’t push me too far out of my comfort zone, as it was completely in the background: no client-facing tasks and not even much interaction with the other workers. However, there were two girls who worked there that I became quite close to—another Irish girl named Shaz, and a Canadian girl, Pearl. I was not the one to initiate this friendship… shocking, I know! As it turned out, Gia had also temped for this company in the past, so she knew these girls and put us in contact. Once again, more important relationships came to life. The four of us spent many sunny afternoons sipping Marilyn Monroes outside Earls on Mainland Street. Those days were a lot of fun.

I had a number of other jobs through the temp agency. I worked at a very fancy property management company as a receptionist. This was terrifying, as I didn’t really have any experience in that kind of role. I was never a fan of speaking on the phone, and that was the main requirement for this job! But I learned as I went and actually enjoyed my few weeks there. My next job was even more phone-centric—I was working in a call centre! That was a whole new experience. There were elections on at the time, and we were cold-calling people to see who they were planning to vote for. One of the rules for the job was that you had to remain impartial and show no bias… which suited me perfectly, as I had no idea what was going on! It wasn’t my favourite job, but again—it was an experience. During this time, I also learned that a lot of companies in Vancouver have a strict “no-scent policy.” On my first day at one job, I had lightly applied some body spray to my wrists, and I was immediately told to go and wash it off before I’d be allowed to start. That was a shock—but it taught me a lesson for the future!

One of my temp placements was in a high-rise building right in the centre of downtown. It was a financial company, and it was made clear to me that I had to wear business attire if I wanted the job. When working for the temp agency, you never knew if a job was going to be a few hours, a few days, or possibly turn into something permanent—so you had to take each opportunity seriously. I went out and bought myself a blazer, which I spent quite a bit of money on. I got myself all dolled up in my best business attire and arrived at this big, fancy building, excited to see what the role would be. Pretty quickly, I realised that maybe spending that money on the blazer had been a bit of a waste. I spent the day going from floor to floor cleaning up after everyone else—emptying and refilling dishwashers, mopping floors, putting rubbish in the bins… doing all sorts of tasks that certainly didn’t require business attire. I only spent one day at that location!

Luckily, my next temp assignment seemed a little more promising—working as a receptionist at a private tennis club. Once again, things were about to change for me… in a very, very positive way.