Before I retired, employees with 10-15 years with IBM used to tell me that they couldn't understand the, "Walk on broken glass" dedication of us old-timers. I would always tell them that was because all of the reasons for that dedication were long gone.
I retired in 94, and even then the employee was nothing more than an expendable commodity. You could be the best that they ever saw, but they would let you go in a heartbeat, hiring up to 3 newbies to do your job.