At some point, it became an accepted narrative that those in charge got to be there because of their tenacity, and that it’s O.K. for them to squeeze their operation and employees to the guts in order to maximize the bottom line because that’s what tenacious people do. It’s an endearing quality, didn’t you know?
Over time, we stopped questioning the whole thing and even found ourselves siding with the bigwigs because fighting the power gets you kicked off the train, and it’s better to be anxious and squeezed on the train than not on the train at all.