The Temp

We all know how it works: first you go to School, then you go to University, and then you enter Real Life. And that"s the important bit. Real Life is about achievement, recognition, choices. It"s about a boss who trusts you, a wardrobe that suits you, friends who support you and a relationship that fulfils you. It"s a mobile phone, an expense account, a company car and a place to park it. Happily Ever After. Unforunately, Real Life isn"t working that way for The Temp. She"s managed the university bit, but the job, the dough and the happily-ever-after seem harder than anybody ever told her. Living in Stockwell while she moves through a series of jobs ranging from the horrifying mindless to the bemusingly witless to the simply extraordinary, she realises that something isn"t right. Who cares about a boss who trusts you? She"d settle for a boss who knows her name. This can"t be Real Life, can it? Building on the success of her INDEPENDENT column, Serena Mackesy has created a wonderfully witty, acerbi expose of office anthropology and a genuinely moving story about the early-twenties doldrums.