As an employee, reading posts like yours makes me sad. In the very real world that I live in, people get paid by their employers a rate they negotiate before em

As an employee, reading posts like yours makes me sad. In the very real world that I live in, people get paid by their employers a rate they negotiate before employment begins, and use that money and the benefits provided to support themselves and their families. Loyalty always seems to flow upwards in companies like you describe, where employees are expected to sacrifice during the hard times, but the company doesn't reciprocate during the good times. I work hard in my job to fulfill the requirements I agreed to during the negotiation, but if the company can't or won't hold up it's end of the bargain, expecting me to continue to do so without compensation is just predatory behavior. This is the business world, and the employer-employee relationship is a business relationship. Anyone who tells you otherwise is usually trying to take advantage of you.