Mine wasn't nearly on the scale of your experience. I worked for the Church. I was a category of employee they have called "contingent". I technically worked for a contractor, but aside from interacting with the payroll guy a few times, I had zero interactions with the company on my paycheck. The Church maintains a percentage of their employees as contingent staff to avoid layoffs. It's cheaper to simply let the contracts of the contingent staff run out than it is to pay severance to laid-off employees.

I felt that the work I was doing was underappreciated by my direct line of management. They were so focused on their new toy (Primavera Unifier) that they neglected to pay attention to the stuff I was doing. I saw the writing on the wall that they were going to simply let me go when my contract ran out so I began actively looking for other employment. At the time, I predicted that I'd be back doing the same work at three times the rate as a consultant. It's been two years and I work for a consulting company that was recently contacted by the Church to do the same work I was doing at the time. If they hire us, I will likely take on the work, and at probably three times the rate.