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I worked for the USPS at their national training facility, and most of the people there were contractors. The "real" USPS employees, the ones being trained, were employees. Apparently the reason was due to USPS employees getting really good benefits as they get to participate in the federal retirement program which includes a pension.

They don't want to have to pony up for all the support staff, even though we worked at a facility, 8-5, 40 hours or more a week, with basically an infinite contract length. They paid for our healthcare plan as well - like an employee might get? :)

There wasn't really anything to complain about, as the pay and benefits for even the contractors were really nice (we had "unlimited PTO" before it became a thing in the startup world), but the debate about employee vs contractor is interesting in this particular case.



Infinite contract length might be a bit tricky and did the USPS pay the benefits? Sounds like an employee to be - which is where MS messed up.


Were you a 1099 contractor, or an employee of a contracting firm? Big difference.


If they paid for healthcare I would expect an employee of a firm that the work was outsourced to.

PEO's (Professional Employment Organizations) will have a future as more and more laws are enacted about how we classify an employee.




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