[pizza]

But what future opportunities can they rescind if you don't accept being exploited?

I always hear people saying something like "I should always be as valuable and loyal as possible to my employer."

But I'm like NO!!! Instead I would hope to live by the idea that "I should always be as valuable and loyal to my personal life as possible."

It's overwhelming for people to have to try to deal with expectations of "negative guidance" from your job, whether that means being overworked or not meeting some stupid evaluation heuristic or being punished by office politics. But still people believe "well if I just keep a smile on my face and work as hard as I can, one day I'll be recognized as more valuable than prior underestimations, and rewarded beyond my imagination" - but, really, it's often the nature of hierarchies that the unknown downsides can go a much longer way down than the upsides can break through a glass ceiling if you aren't already at the top.