For the most part, this October’s Halloween decorations at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters were the usual crepe-paper, pumpkins, and black cardboard cats. Then there appeared a white paper skeleton with a sign that to many in the building conveyed a chilling if familiar message: “Kick Me. I’m a Contractor.”
Management responded with a stern email reminding everyone that Halloween decorations were Microsoft property. The software giant’s more than 9,000 full-time employees in Redmond may have needed a reminder, but its 1,000-plus workers classified as temps didn’t.
Microsoft draws a clear line between a growing segment of contract workers and permanent employees. Full-timers receive paid membership in the company gyms, for instance. Temps aren’t invited to the Christmas party. Most of all, of course, contractors don’t receive the lucrative benefits afforded permanent employees – a distinction that has been underscored since it was challenged in court.
Around the time the masochistic skeleton appeared, Microsoft asked the US Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision to grant benefits to former contractors at the company. The court had ruled that eight former Microsoft temps were entitled to rights of regular employees. If it stands, some say the decision could change working conditions for thousands of former and current temps at Microsoft. It could also alter the way many other companies hire and treat their staffs.
Until recently, the word “temp” evoked the image of workers assigned through an agency to fill in for a secretary who’s out sick, or to do quick-hit extra projects. But at Microsoft, temporaries are often able to stay at the company, and sometimes on the same project, for years. “Even if you leave for a couple of weeks, they’ll still take you back if you’ve done a good job,” says one current temp.
In the red-brick, Northwest-style buildings of RedWest, Microsoft’s interactive media offices, two-thirds of the workers on some teams are temps. Many, such as the content coordinators or lead proofreaders, handle managerial tasks such as chairing meetings, overseeing other temps, and even traveling as representatives of Microsoft.
Microsoft has embedded distinctions between contractors and full-timers in daily life. Its temps don’t have access to the many soccer fields and basketball courts. They don’t get discounts on software at the company store. They can’t attend off-site events without special permission. And they’re excluded from “morale events” – in which entire teams are treated to a day of river rafting or skiing.
“Who really needs a morale boost here?” asked one former temp who is now working full-time at Microsoft.
Temps’ email addresses are always preceded by an “a-“, spawning for them the nickname “a dashes.” They also have orange electronic key cards, while full-timers have blue ones. When Bill Gates launched Windows 95, it seems everyone was there. But the temps weren’t invited, even the ones who worked on the project. And not to forget one more picky distinction: The company doesn’t bring them the birthday cake that full-timers get.
“This has a psychological impact on the temporary workers,” says Stephen Strong, attorney for the plaintiffs. “Full-time employees are encouraged to view the temps as inferior and different from them. But in reality, the temporary employees are not different at all.”
Of course, many contractors are opting out of the birthday cakes deliberately. Many are musicians, football coaches, teachers, and community activists who work at Microsoft to supplement their incomes. And temps do get some perks: the same subsidized lunches as full-timers, free beverages, and sometimes their own offices. As one worker who prefers temping to full-time work said, “You often get to leave at six o’clock, and if a product fails, you aren’t held responsible.”
If the court’s decision stands, plaintiff attorneys maintain, temporary workers who have been at Microsoft for a year or more would be entitled to buy into 401k and stock-purchase plans. Microsoft disputes that, saying the ruling would only affect former temp workers, not present ones.
In either case, the pending ruling could cause shock waves far beyond the Microsoft Campus. “This case is similar to the sex discrimination cases of the 1960s,” says Strong. “Class action suits brought against companies that did not give equal pay to women were the only way to make them realize what they were doing was illegal.”
