At my last job, the IT manager hired outside contractors to spearhead and manage a conversion project from Novell Netware 6/GroupWise 6.5 to Windows Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003. I understand that these consultants were brought in for their expertise and experience in this subject matter, but it seems to me that management listened to their views and concerns more than they did to the concerns and views of employees who have been with the company for many years. To add insult to injury, us permenant IT employees were not sent to any formal training and were expected to become overnight experts by reading books. Management got our dept some online CBTs’, but come on, these things are useless and will never replace real classroom and hands on learning. Many of us were not involved in the conversion meetings and were kept in the dark about things. Was this a plot by management to purposely push us permanent guys out and replace more and more of us with consultants? Since I left, 3 more IT employees have left the company because they had suspicians that their jobs would be outsourced to consultants. Was this an early warning from management that they are going to replace permanent IT staff with consultants because they gave them more respect than permanent employees? When I approached these consultants for questions and help about things, they came off sounding very arrogant and rude, as if I had no right to ask them anything. Is such behavior warranted from temp workers who have no direct affiliation with the company? What do you guys think is the situation here and have you experienced it in your careers?