You wouldn't put a wind farm in the grand canyon, so why Nantucket sound?

I've read a hundred posts, and have not yet seen this angle yet. But I think that the term "IT Guy" can be used in a derogatory sense only when the employees refer to people in other departments with more formal titles or using their names. So if referring to Jack as an Accountant or Jane as a Account Executive is the norm, and yet they refer to you as "IT guy" they are degrading you relative to others in the organization, who may have far less impressive credentials. If everyone is "Accounting" or "Sales" or "IT" then it is probably nothing to get worked up about. One other thing to consider as well. Some companies consider IT as a business driver or differentiator, and others see it as a cost of doing business. Companies that have a strategic use for IT are going to have a natural respect for IT professionals, but companies that need IT just to re-image laptops will treat you as replaceable and if you are nerdy, they will try to pick on you like they did in high school -- just more discreetly.

It seems like the only thing you can do is have a way to easy/quickly destroy the data on your hard drive when alerted to trouble.

I have to wonder if the new company would have kept you around if your documentation wasn't so great. Then at least they might have gotten a chance to watch your performance and decide to look elsewhere to cost cut.

This is kind of like when I was using DOS and Windows came out and all of a sudden everyone was using PCs. I was amazed at the adoption rate now that you could use a mouse, when I felt it was easy all along to turn on the computer and start ProComm or the like. Any web application that takes the brain out of it, even if its end game is virtually identical to something in existence for years, seems to spur a wave of adoption. It amazes us every time.

So what you're suggesting is, casinos are really a way to collect taxes from people voluntarily? Not a bad invention, actually!

They won't smell like crap (unless you are a slob)