A lot of people are jumping to the comments and assuming that the worker is either a developer or a warehouse worker, which makes me assume they didn't finish the article. The OP worked on quality assurance, which is staffed by a lot of contractors because (ideally) the ramp-up time for the position is much smaller than that of an SDE, and a lot of these positions don't last long enough to warrant full-time employment. (That being said, a lot of the full-time QA people start out as contractors.)
The clarion call about the dangers of bad management (and not even "bad" in the Dilbert sense, but "bad" in the "these people are not qualified to do what they need to do" sense) is extremely well-taken. This is why documentation at MegaCorps is so incredibly important, especially with high turnover: if your institutional knowledge is confined to a person, not a wiki or a sharepoint doc, then you're unnecessarily exposing yourself to risk and ruin.
Actually, I'm not sure the OP ever stated his job or job requirements. From reading between the lines, it seems like the OP and the other temps were content taggers: to watch a video/film and identify the characters and actors on the screen in real time.
If that is the case, I would guess it's a low-skills technician-like job, and frankly, I'm surprised it isn't automated with image recognition software.
On the one hand, I could understand how a company would want a group of temp workers to do this one-time essentially data-entry type work. On the other hand, if they make it temporary to avoid paying benefits, that's a loop-hole that needs legislation to close.
But I'm also sympathetic to what the OP is saying: event entry-level workers get better at their job with time and experience, they think of better ways to do their job, they learn the corporate culture and can even contribute outside of their job. I think it is a shame companies have practices like this.
Based on the article, it seems like there's a bit of artistry involved in the tagging. They had to choose a time (and possibly a place?) to show the tag, and probably needed to make a choice that would disrupt the flow of the narrative the least. I don't think software is quite up to snuff just yet when it comes to this, though I am willing to be surprised.
The clarion call about the dangers of bad management (and not even "bad" in the Dilbert sense, but "bad" in the "these people are not qualified to do what they need to do" sense) is extremely well-taken. This is why documentation at MegaCorps is so incredibly important, especially with high turnover: if your institutional knowledge is confined to a person, not a wiki or a sharepoint doc, then you're unnecessarily exposing yourself to risk and ruin.