The frustrating life of a contract worker in Google's shadow workforce

More than half of Google's workers are temporary, vendor or contract staff, known as TVCs

Kevin Kiprovski had a lofty title, "Expeditions Associate," and a fun job — he got to demo Google virtual reality gear to young students. When visiting schools, he wore a gray t-shirt with a cartoon whale and a Google logo. But sometimes the company's reputation made things awkward. Once, a teacher confronted Kiprovski. “‘How do you feel walking in here, showing stuff, when you know you're making so much more than all of us?’" he recalled the teacher asking.

"I had to tell her," he said, "'I only make $40,000 a year." He left out another revealing detail: Kiprovski didn't