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 acerbic exposé of office anthropology and a genuinely moving story about the early-twenties doldrums.