couldn't agree more! (Score 1)

while I'm certainly no fan of M$ (understatement) my experience among the 5 large companies for which I've worked (some as contractor/some as employee) largely mirrors the article. frankly, my contract experience (admittidly 10 yrs ago) with a well-known beverage company here in Atlanta was at least as bad as that sounded (bigtime "class" culture there). at a biG TElecom a contractor's car was stolen from office lot & they did nothing for him (security cameras weren't even being taped) and even terminated his contract a couple of months later (cost cutting; he was actually very productive). nowhere that I've worked have contractors been invited to parties, got discounts/fringes, etc. for fear of those types of suits. my opinion is that while some people have blue chip skills/experience and choose contracting ($$$), employers do frequently take advantage of laid-off workers this way but I'm not convinced that M$ is any worse about it than anyone else (at least that I've been involved with). maybe I'm a anecdotal statistical cluster but that's been my experience...