Rule No. 4 toys with our emotions. Again.

As I have mentioned in the past, there are rules that every temp should observe while in Temp Town. The rules are not intuitive, and they might not apply anywhere else in the real world, but they are hard and fast rules in Temp Town. Fortunately for temps everywhere, I have compiled at least some of these rules. There are, alas, many more that I have not yet touched on. While all of the rules are edifying for residents of Temp Town and moderately entertaining for those on the outside looking in, today I deal only with Rule No. 4, which is:

Rule No. 4: At some point during every project, They will raise false hope.
First corollary to Rule No. 4: Probably repeatedly.
Second corollary to Rule No. 4: And your hopes will be dashed.
Third corollary to Rule No. 4: Mercilessly.

Which means that Rule No. 4 in full reads, At some point during every project, They will raise false hope, probably repeatedly, and your hopes will be dashed mercilessly. Got it?

We are deep in Rule No. 4 territory on my project. As I have said previously, this project shows serious signs of poor health lately. The swordfish is not on the deck, but ever since the client got bought about a month ago, the buyer's law firm and the purchased client's law firm have been holding meetings deciding what is going to happen with the temps' part of the project. It is unlikely to go away, but one of the very real possibilities is a cut to 40 hours. For any temp who is not young, single and not burdened by massive student loans -- in other words, nobody, because all of the young temps have massive student loans -- no overtime means slow starvation. For those of us with dependents and mortgages, it isn't even that slow.

Which brings us to Rule No. 4 and how it applies to this project. The paralegals got their hours cut immediately after the client got bought. Some of the firm's paralegals got bounced from the case to save money. Temp attorneys assumed we were next in line for cuts in some form. But it has been a month since then, maybe even five weeks (who can keep track?). No cuts. Not in hours or people. The reduction in the hours window on Fridays made people nervous, but nothing has happened since then.

Naturally, many of the temps on the project are now speculating that if cuts were going to happen, they would have happened already. Enter false hope. Rules are rules for a reason. It's because they always apply. They're like laws of science. The First Law of Thermodynamics is a law because it always applies and always correctly predicts the outcome in question. (By the way, the next time someone tells you to just accept the theory of anthropogenic global warming because the science is settled, ask them what the First Law of Global Warming is. Then tell them to fuck off. But I digress.) So Rule No. 4 tells us that, even though the new sheriff in town has not yet made cuts in hours or people, we are fool to believe they won't because "At some point during every project, They will raise false hope, probably repeatedly, and your hopes will be dashed mercilessly." You're just setting yourself up for disappointment.

Personally, I would rather be pleasantly surprised than to have my hopes dashed mercilessly, so I am waiting for the hammer to fall. On my finger.

Looks like we have a new rule

And the rule, which I dub Rule No. 4, is this: "At some point during every project, They will raise false hope." They, of course, includes the agency, the firm and, usually through the agency and/or the firm, the client. They do this with promises of benefits -- more hours, a longer project duration, a pay increase, whatever -- that subsequently prove empty. Sometimes the benefits promised -- or, more often, merely hinted at -- are significant, and sometimes the benefit said to be forthcoming is minor, but both kinds raise false hope.

Today's example was of the less significant variety, but it raised false hopes nonetheless. This is a pizza Friday, and the temp who coordinates the food deliveries for the project managers came around early this afternoon to tell everyone that we might be able to substitute Mexican food from District Taco instead of the pizza -- in honor of Cinco de Mayo, I guess -- and how would everyone feel about that. The overwhelming sentiment was that good Mexican food beats mediocre pizza every time.

Not two hours later, the temp food guy -- normally, this position would go to a butt-kissing, suck-up toady seeking to be a temp partner, but this guy is alright -- came around to scotch the idea. No tacos for you. Not a big deal, really, but typical.

So let's recap:

Rule No. 4: At some point during every project, They will raise false hope.

First corollary to Rule No. 4: Probably repeatedly.

Second corollary to Rule No. 4:  And your hopes will be dashed.

Third corollary to Rule No. 4: Mercilessly.

I think that sums it up nicely.