The paper explores how translators negotiate norms and how subversive translation practices are accepted or rejected by translation teams and institutions. Translators who were working or had worked at the same workplace were interviewed to elicit information regarding their experiences and, mostly, their taken-for-granted assumptions as to what translation is, does, and should be and do. Results suggest that when conflicting norms coexist, some translators manage to make their norms rule over others' by creating intra- and inter-professional alliances. However, intra-professional negotiation relies heavily on objective status and imposition. In those cases, some translators consider parts of their translation doxas off limits when negotiating translation norms, and translators may become disaffected and seek alternative fields to develop professionally. What is considered off limits depends on translators' previous experience, most notably their experience with a variety of normative systems which gives rise to different translators' habitus.