Disheartening to hear that you weren't playing this due to political stuff. Adults should be allowed to be adults. If their labor practices stink, those people can go get jobs somewhere else. I'll never understand why we say, we should be allowed to do x (swear on the internet, or tv, nudity, whatever the social thing is) because we're adults and so on and so forth, but we can't let people make their own decisions about where they work under the same logic. If they don't like it, they should quit. Eventually that will force the people in Kerbalville to do the right thing.
When I got started out doing studio work, I was salaried, paid the equivalent of minimum wage, and worked over 100 hours a week. I loved it. I learned so much. Now, 16 years later I make good money, started my own business, and view that time as the most educational and valuable time of my life. The economic reality of the recording studio business is that there isn't much money to be made there. Another valuable lesson learned. It's not so much that they were taking advantage of me, but that they weren't making enough money to pay me more. I'm still in that field, but my business supports it, rather than doing engineering work.
Also Cassini was FAR beyond the planned mission life. It had already had two massive extensions to the mission.
I would hate to be one of your employees. The boss that goes, "Well I like to work 100 hours a week!" and "You don't like it? Then quit!" is a shitty, shitty boss. Get over yourself. Having a job with good "labor practices" shouldn't be a unicorn. If a company is unable to maintain good labor practices, then they need to reevaluate their structure. As a business owner, you should know better. I'm a business owner, and I'd sooner take a pay cut than make my employees lives more difficult and stressful. It's their lives, not just their jobs. I'm asking these people to work their ass off for me, the least I can do is treat them right.
Seriously. Why is abusing employees "political stuff"? How is "swearing on the internet" related to mistreating employees? It's an issue of being a decent person and a decent employer. No one cares that you loved working 100 hours a week if you don't respect your employees. Just because people have the option to quit doesn't mean we should excuse abusive practices. It's a problem in the industry and it shouldn't be written off.
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