Avoiding Temp-orary Insanity: Tips on Temping While You're Waiting in the Wings

Casting now for a unique theatre professional with personality, presence, and life smarts. Someone who is bright, engaging, and personable, with excellent communication and social skills and strong long-term career goals and the motivation to achieve them. Looking for an upbeat "go getter" with a well-trained speaking voice, who can perform under pressure in front of a tough audience and who is willing to "fake it" if he has to. An individual ready to accept a diverse collection of roles performed "in the moment," and sometimes at a moment's notice.
Sound like an intriguing casting call you might want to explore? Welcome to the wonderful world of temping, where temporary services and the many companies they staff consider actors, writers, and entertainment professionals valuable assets because they possess the above qualities. With the temporary industry celebrating National Temporary Help Week from Oct. 5 to Oct. 9, Back Stage has set out to clue you in on the ever-expanding job and schedule options temping can offer.

Lights, Camera, Computer?
Convinced you don't have the skills required to be a temp? Think again. Computer skills will always be at the top of most services' wish lists, but theatre folk are considered to have a special adaptability which allows them to play many roles in the work force. "Actors and writers make up 60% of our employees," cites Diane McGaw, cofounder-owner of New York City's Custom Staffing. "We feel theatre professionals are serious and passionate. They are highly motivated in their own careers, with a valid reason not to want permanent employment. They know temping is a means to an end and are usually a joy to work with. Actors are requested by companies again and again."
Patricia Rohe, McGaw's partner at Custom and the current President of the New York Association of Temporary Services (NYATS), provided Back Stage with NYATS statistics showing that nine out of 10 American businesses now use temporary help. Much like the entertainment industry uses unions to protect its work force, the temporary service industry has trade associations like NYATS. These protect you by requiring their temporary-staffing-company members to follow a code of ethics covering the way they operate their businesses and make payroll. The newest figures show that NYATS membership in New York State has an annual payroll of $2 billion, making it collectively the state's largest employer.
Temporary services furnish their own employees (many services have recently moved away from calling employees "temps" and now refer to them as "associates"), to handle the staffing needs of the service's business clients. As your employer, the temp service assumes responsibility for your wages, workers' compensation, unemployment insurance, and whatever benefit package it has offered