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Tips for Temps: How the System Works
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Althea Chang | MainStreet.com
2. Saving for Retirement
If your employer doesn’t offer you a retirement plan, consider opening an IRA on your own.
3. Beware of Non-Compete Agreements
If you’re considering a temporary or contract job handling sensitive information, you may be required to sign a non-compete agreement promising that you won’t take a similar job at a company’s competitor for a certain amount of time, say six months or more.
Such an agreement can be a hindrance if you are actively searching for a position in your industry, as sometimes it is not possible to defer a competitor’s job offer.
Non-competes usually affect a small group of higher-wage earners, including software designers or sales people, keeping them from working at a company’s direct competitor.
“You always want to understand what restrictions the company is putting on you, especially if they’re asking a lot,” warns Challenger. They technically can’t restrict take your ability to move very much, however, because non-compete agreements have to be very specifically written and pertain to a specific time frame after you work for a company.
4. When to Avoid a Temp Job
If you’re interested in a temp job, but you can live off unemployment checks or have sufficient emergency savings, you may want to reconsider.
Some workers who on paper are considered temporary or contract workers have been at the same job for years. They’re known as permatemps, and they may go years without health, retirement and other benefits.
Challenger says he usually advises people not to take on part-time, temporary or contract work unless it has full-time potential, or unless it’s absolutely financially necessary.
“Usually taking a part time job deters people’s searches” for permanent full-time work, he says. “It’s important to think about whether the job has the potential of turning into a full-time job. Is it the kind of job you’d want to take full time?”
