I also enjoy creating small projects and would not enjoy being in the position of not being able to work on them or not being able to to release them. Even though nobody else may really care about what I do, I enjoy the ability to talk about or write about my projects without worry of losing writes to them or being fired.

I'm still a student so I haven't held many jobs yet, but of the ones that I have I have always been able to work on my own projects without worry. What I work on while at work or in the time I say that I will be working becomes the property of my employer and otherwise I can work on what I please (as long as I don't disclose confidential information).

From what I have observed, it comes down to the values of the company and how they wish to handle this issue. It is possible to find work at a company that is fine with you working on other projects on your own time (open source or otherwise). You may also be able to negotiate it in the terms of your employment or even be able to find a company willing to pay you to work on open source projects.

On the other hand, there are companies that really don't want you working on your own projects. I suppose that there are people that are okay with this or want to work at these companies enough that they are willing to sacrifice that freedom.

These are mainly observations of both of my personal experiences and those of people I know for whatever they're worth but I do believe you can find a job where your projects are not an issue.