Whack-a-mole is a really fun game -- unless you're the mole

Unfortunately, temps are always the mole when we play Whack-a-mole, which is every project we are ever on. When you're the mole, you never want to stick your head up and be noticed, because someone is waiting with a hammer to smack you -- and they're laughing the whole time, just like people playing the actual game. Temps are constantly trying to avoid notice -- at least smart temps are -- which means never sticking your head up. If you are going faster than everyone else, your work will draw extra scrutiny because the firms will assume that you are working so fast not because you are good, but because you aren't actually paying attention, and they will bring the hammer down. On the reverse side of that coin, temps playing Whack-a-mole have to be careful, because we can stick our heads out on the bottom side of the game, as well, by working too slow instead of too fast. You really don't want to do that, either, though, because the guy watching the bottom doesn't have a hammer. He has an ax, and he cuts your head off. Gone from the project. Low numbes get you cut.

The answer, of course, is what smart temps always seek -- stay off the radar. Don't be too fast, and don't be too slow. The problem comes at the beginning of a project -- like now, on my project -- when there is a lot of pressure from the firm for temps to produce high numbers, but no guidance on what those numbers might be. Too high, you're careless. Too low, you're gone. It's a delicate dance, and right now we're dancing with no music. It really sucks to be a mole.