Temping assignment got terminated without any valid reason

geek84

Hi folks

I have been temping as a credit controller, through a recruitment agency, for a large organisation for about a month now. Everything seemed to have been going fine and the agency was getting good feedback regarding my work performance etc.

However, today I had a day off work (I booked the day off last week), and this afternoon the agency rang me to say the company has decided to terminate my contract. They did not give any specific details as to the reason why.

I have still got my team leader's email address (where I was working) and was wondering whether or not it would be a good idea if I contacted my team leader to ask the reason why my role was terminated.

Any advice offered would be greatly appreciated.

coojee

geek84 wrote: »

Hi folks

I have been temping as a credit controller, through a recruitment agency, for a large organisation for about a month now. Everything seemed to have been going fine and the agency was getting good feedback regarding my work performance etc.

However, today I had a day off work (I booked the day off last week), and this afternoon the agency rang me to say the company has decided to terminate my contract. They did not give any specific details as to the reason why.

I have still got my team leader's email address (where I was working) and was wondering whether or not it would be a good idea if I contacted my team leader to ask the reason why my role was terminated.

Any advice offered would be greatly appreciated.

I wouldn't contact the client directly but I would be asking the agency as a matter of urgency to see if they can find out what's happened. It's your professional reputation on the line.

geek84

Hi coojee

Thanks for your reply.

Why wouldn't you contact the client directly? I was thinking that it would actually be a good idea i.e. hear the reason for my termination from 'the horses mouth'!

uknitty

Absolutely do not contact the client directly. The reason that employers use agencies is so that the agency can deal with managing the temp. If the client instructed the agency to tell you the contract was terminated, it was probably because they didn't want to have that conversation with you direct.

Definitely contact the agency and get feedback, but you will only make things worse if you try and contact the client direct as not only will the client view it as unprofessional , but the agency will probably see you as treading on their toes, and may be wary of working further with you.

Simply put, it is really bad temp etiquette to contact the client direct unless the client initiates the contact and you are simply responding.

geek84

Hi uknitty

Thanks for your reply.

I know this may sound a bit rude - but do you think the agency would tell me the 'real' reason for the client teminating my contract?

Thanks

blobbyh

Some possible questions to ask yourself before you go looking for a reason from others:

Do you feel you were "fitting" in with your colleagues specifically and the rest of the company generally?

Were you successful at it i.e. you got the debt down so much you weren't needed anymore and/or had cleared a backlog?

Were you unsuccessful at it i.e. you didn't meet their expectations?

Feedback from the agency is important of course but it's also important to be honest with yourself.

geek84

Hi blobbyh

Thanks for your reply. I think I did get on with my colleagues and I did get the debt down. If that wasn't the case, they probably would not have kept me on for 6 weeks !

blobbyh

Depends on the tasks that a temp credit controller is asked to do. If it's simply to reduce a long standing overdue debt issue then it could only be short term. In the majority of overdue debts, the issue usually isn't even disputed fees but rather poor invoicing policies e.g. not being raised on time, misaligned credit terms (you think it's 14 days, client doesn't pay anything in less than 30), invoices being sent to incorrect address or legal entity etc, lack of follow up on invoices already sent out e.g. regular statements. Fix these at the front end and you can cut out a lot of the problems at the back end. If it was a short term problem that you fixed, then they'd have no further need for you harsh as that is.

As stated previously, ask for feedback from the agency and please let us know on here what the outcome was. You've openly asked for feedback on a situation, it's only fair you let us know an edited version of the results.

uknitty

Geek you may not be required to know the "real" reason.

I have worked on temp assignments before where the whole body of agency staff got terminated with 1 weeks notice. In that instance that a completely different area of the business was asking people to take voluntary redundancy. The company had a policy of not engaging ANY agency workers whilst redundancy negotiations were taking place as it could be construed that the positions filled by agency workers may be suitable for the people facing redundancy to be TUPE'd in to.

Could be that the budget for temp staff has been cut, that the client has decided to switch its preferred supplier of temporary workers.... there are countless reasons why there would be no business need for a temp no matter how good a job you were doing.

If you are absolutely confident that you did a good job, then it really may be a case of its "not you, its me..." when they let you go. You need to be honest with yourself though and if you really can't think of a reason why there may have been concerns, then you are probably never going to find out why.

I'd contact your agency, advise them that you enjoyed the assignment, felt that you did well at a b and c and then ask what are the chances of another assignment coming up with the client is in the near future. If you were released from the assignment owing to a problem with your work then the agent should tell you that there is no opportunity at the moment because the client didn't feel it was working out. If it is just a case of there is no business need for a temp, then the agent should tell you that they will be the first person they call when an opportunity arises (after all why would they not want to place you back there if you have been doing a good job ?)

As blobbyh says, let us know how you get on.

[Deleted User]

This has happened to me a few times in the past also (in my junior days). It is usually done while you are not in the building, i.e. a day off, on your lunch hour or have left for the day.

It is a bit of a coward’s way of doing things but that is why companies use agencies and pay a premium for it. It may be the case that they just didn't need your services any more or that the performance you feel you had achieved was below their expectations even though they never let on to you.

The worst thing you can do is approach the client direct and this is for two reasons:

1. The client got the agency to do it for them for a reason. They didn't want to do it themselves and that's why they pay an agency a premium for temp staff.

2. The client could take the consequences of your action out on the agency and choose not to use them again. The agency would then take this out on you and never work with you again.

This has happened with me before but not for contacting the client, it was due to my performance not meeting the client’s expectation. So if this is the case with you, the agency may choose not to work with you again.

You can try asking the agency and they may tell you the real reason why but then again, they may not. It depends on the agency entirely.

The main problem you may have is that when you approach another agency for temp work and tell them that your contract was terminated without prior notice, they may choose not to offer you any of their temp roles as it may impact on their reputation with their clients if something was to go wrong again.

The best thing to do is to try and find out from the agency the real reason and once we have this established, we can all advise on your next course of action.

geek84

Hi Folks


Just to give you kind people an update on this -


I spoke to the agency today & they said I was brought in to cover work for someone off long term sick. Now that someone is back, so therefore they don't need me any more ! The client aloso told the agency that they would give me a glowing reference if needed for future employment!

Jo Clark

That is positive feedback Manjinder!

geek84

Sure is, Jo

Kanij87

Hi, this just to say it was helpful reading this thread. I was in a very similar situation a few weeks ago, even though I was technically self-employed via a third party agency rather than a temp. After three months suddenly terminated without notice or explanation.

I did contact the client directly when I got nothing out of the agency, disregarding all the advice here. It was perhaps unprofessional (though not unethical I think) to do so, but I felt it was the right thing to do for me, even though (as expected) I never got word back. I felt that co-operation with 'colleagues' for three months gave me the right (not in a legal sense) to ask for an opportunity to end our co-operation in a mature way.