Putting aside everything else, contracting is very different. I'm was a contractor (independent as well as via a firm I co-started) for a over a decade, and get

Putting aside everything else, contracting is very different. I'm was a contractor (independent as well as via a firm I co-started) for a over a decade, and getting fired by a client, as you say, is no big deal. Every business deals with bad customers, makes mistakes sometimes, etc. If it doesn't kill the business, you fix the problem (if any) and move on. Working for The Man is a very different relationship and is looked upon differently by everyone from other people through the tax man. So it is a different thing. Working around the same people daily for a long period of time within the context of employment means building different (and usually deeper) relationships. I won't say it is an ersatz family, but there are similar emotional things going on. Given that you go in to your engagements with the understanding that you can be fired at the drop of a hat means you think about it differently than the person who gets canned. Perhaps people should think differently about at-will employment, but they don't, and society loads them with different meanings.