A term used at
Microsoft to refer to temporary employees. Microsoft lives and dies by
head count and employs a great number of
temp or contract workers. In the
email system, temp workers have a "A-" appended to the front of their email name. For example, full time
MSFT employee Mike Smith is msmith@microsoft.com. Temp employee Mike Smith is "a-msmith@microsoft.com". The "a" stands for "agency", meaning they're technically employees of a temp
agency.
This helped create and reinforce a
hierarchy between full timers and the lowly, seemingly disposable temp workers.