This actually happened to me and 11 other colleagues back in 2002. I was working for a mid-tier IT consultancy and a bunch of us were working at a utility on a

This actually happened to me and 11 other colleagues back in 2002. I was working for a mid-tier IT consultancy and a bunch of us were working at a utility on a long-term program. Having delivered the initial version of this core system, and still hanging around doing a lot more dev work (many more features and fixes), the utility turned around and did a deal with the consultancy for a dozen of us to "go native", presumably with a suitable financial compensation as well as the promise of a level of continued engagement beyond our transfer. The surreal part came when the CEO of the consultancy and the CIO and CFO of the utility took the dozen of us out to dinner at a very upmarket restaurant. There were multiple times that night when a few of us felt like chattel. I almost felt like I should be baring my teeth so the new owner could check me out. Very weird, but it was a win-win and I stayed at the utility 7 years doing some really interesting work. EDITED TO ADD: I should point out that our salaries went up, but for the utility that was still cheaper than the T&M rates they were paying.