I'm okay with this. Software development contracting, as it is right now, is intensely problematic at pretty much every level. Hiring closely-managed contract

I'm okay with this. Software development contracting, as it is right now, is intensely problematic at pretty much every level. Hiring closely-managed contractors to work on-prem basically creates an underclass in the industry: they're just like employees, except they get no insurance or PTO, and they're excluded from most company functions, and it looks bad on a resume because they're rarely at one company for long. Hell, they tend to get treated differently because they typically wear guest badges instead of employee badges. This is simply harmful, and while a lot of companies may feel like they're financially pressured into doing so, society has a vested interest in stopping this practice. On the other hand, hiring a remote consulting company where you give them a requirements sheet and say "do your thing and get back to me with something that fulfills this"—i.e., actual, proper contractors—inevitably turns into a nightmare. I've seen these consultants go incommunicado for weeks at a time, find every excuse to push deadlines back, and when they do turn something in, they turn in a pile of awful code that needs to be rewritten by the actual engineering staff. My experience with these people has lead me to start referring to them as "dairy farmers" because they just milk their clients, and every one of my colleagues who I've introduced the term to has fallen in love with it. Honestly, I think software engineering contracting should just go away. Either you create and exploit an underclass or you get screwed by dairy farmers. The only way I can see to save this situation is to legally delineate "temp employees" as a class. Temps would be employees in every way except that they have a fixed term of employment stated up front (where "fixed" can mean either a set amount of time or until a specified project is delivered). They would have benefits and PTO, just like other employees. They would be employees for the purposes of who can attend company events, what kind of badges they wear, etc. It still wouldn't be perfect because the short length of employment would look bad on a resume, but it's a far cry better than the current situation. And if it costs companies more to hire them, then that's just the cost of doing business in a society. I've seen the same arguments used to demean basic dignities such as minimum wage, overtime laws, mandatory sick leave, paid vacation time, etc., and they're all spurious.