Most very large companies are like that with IT people. I worked for Ford (through a contract company). Of the hundreds of IT people I knew at Ford, only one was a real Ford employee... the top IT manager of our building. Even the managers below him weren't Ford employees. It's the IT world's fault this happens. Nobody stays at an IT job for more than a couple years, so the big companies see it as a huge waste to go through the trouble of permanently employing people. This way, keeping a position filled isn't their problem, nor is all the human resources crap that goes along with it.