Software Employee?

This Link , contains the phrase/epithet "software employee". I wonder what that means? I mean the story contained in the link is tragic, but I think having a software employee would be pretty cool. As opposed to a hardware employee. Throw away those large clunky obsolete pieces of junk. Hire a software employee, now. I guess even making software employees will be a big industry if having a software employee would be possible. So what is an employee who writes software for a software employee manufacturing company called?