I just finished a gig doing some networking and internet hosting for a small department in a major world corporation.
Basically, I was hired because the inhouse IT department for the corporation was a lot more expensive and restrictive than I was, as well as extremely single minded in their choice of software/hardware packages. Due to the nature of the departments business which was on the fringe of the corporations business and quite different than what the IT department was used to, the department manager specifically wanted me because he felt I could develop solutions that met his staffs needs better.
Red Flags were up for me going in, but it was lucrative and fun sounding and the manger assured me they were quite removed from inhouse IT, so I jumped in.
When people in IT found out what was going on about half way through the project, I encountered what could only be described from my previous frozen food corporation Teamster days as “Feeling like a Scab”.
I was attacked through the network numerous times during this project, but unable to really do much about it rather than keep the person hiring me informed and strengthening the departmental network. At one point, the workstations kept mysteriously needing “repairs” frequently and were removed, interrupting the departments ability to work and reflecting pretty poorly on me. Even getting the check took forever as it was endlessly held up in the vending office for a lot of reasons.
The worst thing though, of course, was enduring the hostile stares of people I otherwise would of probably liked to converse with.