It's worth watching Stefan Molyneaux's video "The Story of your Enslavement".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A
HR and top management know that engineers will not fight back, like sales people. They take advantage of our timid personalities. They hook you in when you're young and then toss you out. I'm out of corporate life now and am thankful.
It's much like Nassim Taleb's story of the Turkey:
A Black Swan is an event or occurrence — a tail event, as Taleb would call it — that is so remote that it is completely unforeseen.
The famous example Taleb uses in his book is the Thanksgiving turkey.
"Consider a turkey that is fed every day," Taleb writes. "Every single feeding will firm up the bird's belief that it is the general rule of life to be fed every day by friendly members of the human race 'looking out for its best interests,' as a politician would say.
"On the afternoon of the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, something unexpected will happen to the turkey. It will incur a revision of belief."