The OP here definitely paints a pretty bleak picture from the standpoint of the employer, but the general area of working side gigs is pretty grey. I am a full time dev and took on a pretty limited position as a part time tennis coach at a high school. Am I putting out garbage output for my company?
If you are selling hours outside of those 40 then go nuts, though some people also freely sign that right away too.
I don’t think respecting that makes anyone a corporate drone. It makes them honest.
In this sense you get paid well but they want you to think how to make the shareholders rich (which might be the employee if their lucky but that shareholding or option is rarely contingent on performance but on staying employed until vesting at most)
On the other hand employment is cushy in that you just get paid in less than 30 days and don’t need to think about a bunch of business stuff like marketing or contract negotiations so hence why it is popular.
Should companies be allowed to have other customers? Should they reduce their prices to cover costs to get to a standardized “market rate” profit for a company. I guess like a co-op.