Being a contractor can be pretty sweet. If this job were full time, it would suck - high priority bugs would come up and we'd just have to deal with them.

But my company bills for my time by the hour. And the small group I'm in has a limited budget -- they can cover 40 hour weeks for the next year, but not much more than that. So my manager tries very hard to balance "high priority" against "balancing the budget", and the budget usually wins out. I get to work a 40 hour week, generally normal business hours, regardless of what heat is coming down from on high. And if the heat did get too hot and they did have to pull me in for extra time (unlikely, but could happen), I would get paid overtime. Kick ass!

(Yes, a high priority bug came in just this afternoon. Yes, I am leaving work now regardless, and I am just going to deal with it in the morning. Yes, everyone all worked up over the bug is just going to have to deal until then.)

I'm off for the day!