My boss says they don't pay over time after I've already done overtime.

Here's what happened.

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Sometimes as a consultant you get to see how an office functions from an outsider's perspective.

Since you're an independent contractor, the company treats you differently than an employee.

Also just due to the nature of contract work, your engagement is usually short term.

This makes you a temporary fixture and sometimes you're just treated as a fly on the wall,

like you don't exist.

And this can lead to some interesting observations,

including seeing train wrecks in progress.

This is one of those tales.

Not so much about the nuts and bolts of tech support,

but more about the people and some good old-fashioned just desserts.

Background.

As a consultant, you're always going to be the IT guy, whether you like it or not.

No matter how you market your services,

every single company is going to assume you can do anything with a computer.

And when business is slow, this is not necessarily a bad thing if you just need work.

About 10 years ago, I found myself in a situation.

I got an inquiry through my website,

asking about assistance deploying some workstations and other mundane tasks.

Usually I would pass on this kind of work,

...