Yeah being an actual contractor/consultant should feel GOOD. You should not be married to a single company for too long. You should have a sense of freedom.

There should be a simple test that if a person is working at only one client for too long (3 mo?) then they are to be converted to an employee. There's no reason for these middleman employers to exist except to make people disposable to companies. If that's the case, then they should be cycled in and out with a higher frequency. Nobody should remain a "red badge" at Google for any significant length of time.

Exactly. The mistake was thinking that the responsibility stemmed from the employeeing entity.

It shouldn't.

It's clearly more linked to the type and structure of work performed.

> True contractors won’t care: they work for themselves and have multiple clients anyway.

Some companies will even go as far as to prevent you from having multiple clients. Try asking anyone who contracts for Apple if they have any side work…

I think the way it works is that if they provide some benefits, then they would have to make them into FTE and give them all the benefits.