IT shops are very political and full of a lot of tight little cliques I have personally found in my 20+ years experience. I have seen people throw other people under the bus simply because others found out how much money the person was making. People/managers in IT shops tend to listen to what others say about people, instead of checking things out for themselves first. Many times, it is about personalities and and personal agendas, instead of skill and competence. I have seen a lot of good people run out of companies while others sit on their azz and surf the Internet all day long, or engage in personal conversations all day instead of concentrating on their jobs. It is very unfortunate that this kind of junior high behavior and nonsense is present in the workplace and can end up affecting our ability to make a living for our families, but it is a fact of life. I have learned the hard way that what people say to your face in this industry is usually not what they are saying behind your back. What is really sad and tragic is that people lose their jobs over these kind of juvenile stuff everyday in this business. 🙂