What's With You And Custom
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Custom Staffing:
What's With You And Custom
Not too long ago, I had an agency I was working for out of the blue ask me "What's With You And Custom Staffing?" What this means is that Custom Staffing must have some how found out who I was working for and contacted them. Ain't that cute? While the world may once have revolved around Custom Staffing, today they are just one of the horde (they are also famous for having two temps who plead guilty to illegal insider trading).
The Day I Registered With Custom Staffing
When I first came to NYC in the late 80's, I mostly specialized in technical consulting. Then I noticed that these brain damaged retards doing word processing and lotus were making more money than I was and they were doing much less work. For example, I had a contract with IBM that paid me less than some idiot actress made typing and she was doing her nails most of the time she was suppose to be working.
So, I set out to learn a word processing program to use as back-up in case my business was slow to take-off and just so I could be in a position to tell anyone I happen to be working for to go *uck themselves (I love having that option).
So, I paid $300.00 for Microsoft Word for Windows, bought books on MS Word for Windows, studied it, learned it and set out to register with temp agencies.
Now, at the time I was not an expert on the NYC market, I heard from people temping that Custom Staffing was THE agency and that all of their temps made lots of money. At the time, every temp I ever saw from Custom Staffing was White and Gay and had much attitude. But, if that was the place to make lots of money, then Custom Staffing was the place I was going to register with.
Okay, so I'm at Custom Staffing, there are two receptionists, one male one female. I tell them that I would like to register as a temp and that I know Microsoft Word for Windows. The guy asks me how many years of experience in Word for Windows I have. I say three months. He then says: "I'm sorry but you have to have at least two years of experience to register with us". Two years of experience in Microsoft Word for Windows and Microsoft Word for Windows has only been on the market for three months? The program is only three months old so how can anyone have two years of experience with it?
I tell this to the guy but he and the chick are not buying it, they KNOW that you MUST have at least two years experience and that's that. So, I have to go downstairs, use a pay phone to call upstairs and speak to a counselor and tell the counselor that the receptionists are turning away people because they don't have two years of experience in a program that is only three months old.
Finally, someone convinces the Guy and the Fat Chick to allow me to take the Ms Word for Windows test. I take the test and neither the Guy nor the Chick know how to print out the results, so I print it out for them and hand it to them. The Guy and the Chick then look at the printout and say "I'm sorry you didn't pass the test". Okay, so this Guy and this Chick don't know that the software is only three months old and they don't know how to print from the program, yet they are still capable of determining who passes and fails the test? Some how, some way, I manage to actually get to a counselor and register.
Well for a long time I never hear from Custom Staffing and all this time I am watching brain damaged people who know only lotus make more money than me. Then one day a counselor who I knew from another agency calls me and tells me that she is now at Custom Staffing and she gives me work. But I only get work while she is there and when she leaves I hear that I was DNU-ed, this is agency talk for "DO NOT USE". Apparently, I am not Custom Staffing quality. Among all the girls in the city, DNU is the horror upon horrors. To be DNU-ed by Custom is, in this one little clique, equivalent to being relegated to a life of poverty and shame.
At this point in the story, I must simply say that I do not consider a temp agency to be in a position to decide if I live or die. So, receiving the information that I have been DNU-ed by Custom Staffing does not exactly ruin my day. In fact, I actually mailed a certified letter to Custom Staffing officially quiting and informing them not to allege or give the impression that I still worked for them.
Fast Forward. Years later, I pick up the New York Post and there is a picture of this temp on the cover. It turns out this Temp is a Custom Staffing Temp and he has just pleaded guilty as the point man for the largest insider trading scandal in history (involving stealing and selling insider info from Credit Suisse First Boston).
It turns out the DNU Princesses end up getting DNU-ed by First Boston.
By Marion Paige (Marionpaige) on Thursday, November 15, 2001 - 8:41 pm: Edit PostI can't tell you how many stories I've heard from temps claiming that Custom Staffing was bad mouthing them to other agencies and with supervisors of major WP Centers (a lot of whom seemed to be former Custom Temps years ago).
One temp in particular relayed a story to me in which she claimed that it was not until she became supervisor of a word processing center (and therefore in a position of power) that she was able to get Custom to back off.
The two women who allegedly own Custom seem to be alternating being head of the association of staffing firms in NYC. The information I have is that less than 1/3 of the temp agencies in NYC are actually in that association.
By Admin (Admin) on Friday, November 16, 2001 - 7:30 pm: Edit PostIf you are being hounded by some temp agency, post a message here or on some other temp board and find out how many other people are being subjected to the same treatment.
Depending on how many people have sustained damage, you all may be able to find an attorney that will sue without you paying a fee up front on behalf of all of you as a group.
With respect to Custom Staffing, there are so many people who hate them that, if they did or are bad mouthing you, it may actually be a GOOD THANG. Also, the fact that it was two Custom temps who were selling insider information on the internet does provide you with a COUNTER to their bad mouthing you.
The insider trading scandal lawsuit involving Custom Temps is available on the internet and is public domain. I doubt that anything Custom can say about you to a Client could be worst than that client being handed a copy of the insider trading scandal lawsuit SEC V Freeman.
By admin (admin) on Sunday, April 20, 2003 - 1:34 pm: Edit PostSEC V FREEMAN
http://www.sec.gov/divisions/enforce/extra/freecomp.htm
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION,
Plaintiff,
v. COMPLAINT
JOHN FREEMAN, 00 Civ. 1963 (VM) (Southern District of New York)
JAMES COOPER,
BENTON ERSKINE,
ANTHONY SEMINARA,
NORMAN LEHRMAN,
LINDA KARLSEN,
TIMOTHY SIEMERS,
NORMAN GROSSMAN,
LAWRENCE SCHWARTZ,
MICHAEL AKVA,
ROBERT FRICKER,
RICHARD ZELMAN,
BRADLEY BURKE,
BENJAMIN COOPER,
CHAD L. CONNER,
DEON BENSON,
GORDON K. ALLEN, JR.,
JON GEIBEL, and
WILLIAM H. BORDERS II,
Defendants.
From approximately October 1996 to January 6, 2000, Freeman was employed in the Composition Department of Philip Morris Companies, Inc. ("Philip Morris") in New York City. During the same period, Freeman also worked at a variety of temporary jobs. As an employee of Custom Staffing Inc. ("Custom"), a temporary employment agency, Freeman was assigned to work at Goldman Sachs from May 1997 to June 1998. At Goldman Sachs, Freeman was able to gain access to a wealth of material nonpublic information regarding numerous merger and acquisition transactions planned by clients of Goldman Sachs. After leaving Goldman Sachs, Freeman was assigned by Custom to a temporary word processing position at Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation ("CS First Boston") which, like Goldman Sachs, is a major international investment bank headquartered in New York. While working at CS First Boston from October 1998 to January 2000, Freeman was able to gain access to highly confidential nonpublic information regarding many upcoming merger and acquisition transactions involving the firm's clients.
