We are looking at some serious deja vu here

The project I started Wednesday involves the same client and the same law firms as the project that gave birth to this blog. That, for those of us on this project, is not a good thing. Feel free to read the earliest entries on this blog for some background, but things have changed a little. Back then, the different firms, all representing the same client, handled different aspects of the case, using different agencies to hire their temps and conducting their business at different review sites. The left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing, often enough, and both were surprised to find that there was a center hand. It was complicated and disjointed.

I believe the disjointed nature of that project led to widespread opportunities for virtually risk-free graft and corruption on the part of contract attorneys -- mostly, billing for time during which the temp was not actually present at the project -- and I also believe that at least some temps took advantage of those opportunities. I left that project before it actually ended and went to another project that was taking place only two blocks away. A number of people on that project were moving back and forth between the two, claiming overtime hours on both. I have always said that temps are their own worst enemies.

Along with the graft on that project, there was, alas, widespread, highly visible incompetence. The firms noticesd. How could they not, with incidents like this:

The CA's of the right hand were called to a meeting to have the attorneys of the firm from the left hand explain to us what we needed to do. In this way, the left hand would know what the right hand was doing. Fuck the middle hand -- they aren't part of this.
So 200 CA's employed by the right hand gather to be instructed by the left hand. The sight is every bit as impressive as you might imagine if you have been paying attention here. The room is crowded, and half the CA's have no chair. Some are sitting on the floor. So far, no problem. But right up front, where the law firm attorney from the left hand is standing, ready to instruct us, are at least two reasons why he should run screaming from the room rather than trust us to handle this task. To his credit, he does not flee. At his feet, LYING ON THE FLOOR, is a very round -- I am talking SPHERICAL -- contract attorney. He makes no effort to sit up or otherwise appear human. He simply lies there. He looks like there should be a harpoon poking out of him and a man named Ahab standing over him.
Sitting on the floor right next to him -- at least he's upright -- is another CA who could sit on a park bench full of drunken homeless people and blend right in. Maybe the greasy hair, dirty clothes and fairly strong smell of alcohol are masking an Ivy League education and world-class intellect, but is that the way to bet?

The two contract attorneys featured in that post became known as Moby and the Hobo  -- not to be confused with Hootie and the Blowfish -- and I believe that the firms involved were forever scarred by the experience.

Actually, I know so, because they seem to be taking great pains to ensure that no repeat incidents like those described above occur on this project. First, the firms involved have joined forces -- all the temps are hired through one agency, and they are all at one site. The three firms are cooperating in a single management team. There is no left hand, right hand, center hand problem. There is simply a single iron first. No velvet glove.

We have triple-redundant time-keeping measures, maybe even quadruple-redundant. There are literally dozens of staff attorneys roaming the floors of the review areas, partly to answer questions, partly to ensure that people who say they are present are in fact present, and that those who are in fact present are actually working and not watching porn on their smart phones. I have a stupid phone and feel a little left out, frankly.

I can't fault the firms for taking this approach. First, a number of the people who were on that first project are here again. Most of them seem to be the ones who actually are good reviewers, but not all, and some of them seem to be the professional bullshit artists. Moby and the Hobo apparently didn't make it, but there are some fine examples of Temp Town's worst on this project. Some are simply not at all smart, and some are corrupt and will lie about their time in a skinny minute. I've seen them do it.

Because of them, and that last project, all of us are being treated like we are in kindergarten at reform school -- not only are we immature, we're fucking criminals that the firms know will steal the silver if they turn their backs for a second. So they aren't turning their backs.

I can't say I blame them. On the other hand, it has turned what should be a profitable project into a stressful one. If I wanted stress at work, I wouldn't be doing this shit. Anyway, I have lots of notes from the first two days of this clusterfuck, and I promise to share. Midnight now, though, so I'll have to save it. I don't think we're going to hit the literary highlights inspired by Moby and the Hobo, but you never know.