There's something kind of special about an agency's efforts to build trust with contract attorneys

Why, yes, that blog post title is dripping with sarcasm, why do you ask? The agency I just left was, when my project there ended, promising to roll people over shortly to another project. I chose not to wait and am now elsewhere. Once I started here, I received an email from the agency I was working for inviting me to join a project starting next week. I let them know that I appreciated the offer but was gainfully employed elsewhere and would let them know when I became available again. All standard, no worries, end of story.

But, no. A few people were kept on to finish up on privilege issues (legal privilege, not white privilege, you liberal morons) and they were told they would be rolled over to the next project. For a temp, "rolled over" is a term of art -- it means you move from one project to the next without an interruption in employment. Not, apparently, in this agency's lexicon. On June 2, a buddy of mine kept over for privilege work got the following email from another person kept over for privilege work:

Not sure if [the agency employee responsible for letting temps know what is going on] talked to you, but she had been texting us girls today, and said that now we won't be starting until June 10th.

This information being imparted, of course, to people who were expecting to start on June 2, since their project ended the Friday before. And, oh yeah, this information not being imparted to all of the temps, apparently.

Naturally, my buddy responded as any red-blooded temp would:

!!!!!.... im not waiting a friggen week!!!

Drawing this response from the temp who informed him that the rollover was not happening right away:

yeah. i know. I'm really pissed. and  [the agency employee responsible for letting temps know what is going on] is being fucking annoying bc she's like enjoy the week off guys! this gonna be a long term project! I'm like um its a 40 hour project with horrible hours, and now basically we won't have three weeks of 40 hour paycheck. it's so stupid. everyone is pissed. I'm def looking for other things now esp bc I'm annoyed. we could have started Friday.

Apparently folks were told they would roll over to a multiple-month project. As it turned out, the truth was less attractive -- 1-2 months, no overtime, must work 5 days a week. That is basically the worst kind of project. No wonder the agency didn't want to share details earlier. Glad I turned it down. So, my buddy responded to his better-informed friend:

Yeah I told [an employee of the agency who ranks higher than the person responsible for keeping temps informed] friday I didnt want to be on that project bc of the stupid 40 hr 8 hr a day policy.... plus they act like they are doing us a favour being locked into a 40 hr long term project?.... thanks for rewarding your favourite workers [the agency I recently worked for]!

Drawing this final response from my buddy's better-informed friend:

i know. it's ridiculous. i really hate [the agency I recently worked for]. I'm hoping i can find something else before Tuesday.

Is it just me, or is this agency not doing a good job of maintaining employee satisfaction? Alas, I don't think they are unusual.