[widebody911]

Unfortunately, this is a common practice, and he'll probably do the same thing in a year or so when he falls behind again. He probably figured it would be cheaper to use you and throw you away than to engage a CPA to do it.

A couple of years ago, I worked for a medical a s/w company that was undergoing a huge push to get a new product through dev/test and submitted for FDA approval. They flogged the staff mercilessly, keeping people there until 1:30am and making them come back in @ 7:00. There was no OT - not even for the people paid hourly - but there were grandiose promises of comp time, bonuses, stock options, etc. Well guess what? A couple of days after the s/w was submitted to the FDA, the axe fell. They literally laid off a little more than 1/2 of the company; in fact they terminated their lease on 1/2 of the office space as well. Most of those RIF'd were the 'locals' - they kept every last H1B, and a single contract employee (me). Of course, the wives of the upper managers who were on the payroll as 'consultants' were not touched. This was one of the experiences that cemented my skepticism of the corporate world.