Whether it’s Uber, Lyft, Bolt or Activision Blizzard, companies in the technology space really dislike hiring full time employees. Contract workers are a far more alluring prospect as there is no need to negotiate benefits, work hours and the like.

This makes news that Epic Games is hiring its contract workers as full-time employees particularly notable. The same offer is being extended to quality assurance testers and other eligible contract workers according to a report from The Verge.

While Epic Games doesn’t detail which positions will receive the offer of permanent employment but said that most of the positions are quality assurance testers. There are a few hundred contractors who will supposedly receive the offer of permanent employment.

Not all employees will receive this offer as some positions may make more sense for Epic Games to offer to contract workers. A spokesperson for Epic Games also told The Verge that the firm will still employ contract workers for short-term needs.

We see many companies, particularly in and around Silicon Valley, opting to employ contract workers. Unfortunately, this can lead to some in the system abusing contract work and workers for monetary gain. Worse still is when contractors are promised full-time employment only for the rug to be pulled from under them.

This is what allegedly happened to QA testers at Raven Software in 2021. Despite being promised fulltime employment at the Activision Blizzard-owned studio, testers were instead let go.

We are curious to see whether what Epic has done here becomes a trend but we won’t be holding our breath.