I think after enough companies treat you that way, it becomes a lot easier.

I don't work that way, and I've been with my company for about 12 years now I think. But after watching the recent tech layoffs, it's pretty obvious that tech companies aren't thinking about their employees futures, just the present. The ones that don't give a generous severance are the worst, but even with that it can be rather difficult to find a new job... Especially one that you like.

Many, many companies think of employees merely in terms of the money, and not how they're disrupting that person's life. It doesn't surprise me that there are non-managers that think and act the same way towards the company.

Simple.

You look at how companies are operating, how they are treating employees, how they are chasing short-term financial performance over long-term sustainability and simply mirror their behavior on an individual level.

Personally, I am only invested in a company to the degree of making my immediate coworkers happy and making it easier for them to do work. I don't care about the long term (5-10 year timeline) success of the strategic goals for 2 reasons:

1. The company is not invested in me in the long term.

2. I don't have strategic visibility to make improvements anyway, because I am not an executive, so it makes no sense to worry about something I can't control.

Simple - do the same things companies do. Optimize for profit. I honestly could give a rats ass what a companies profits are in 5 years since I won't be there.

"Where do you see yourself in 5 years" - "not here because you 100% won't increase pay commensurate with market rate"

Its relatively simple to see how people could operate that way, because companies don't actually care about employees. They're a line item for profit generation.

Simple. Pivot to thinking of yourself as a corporation of 1, with the goal of maximizing your personal profit for minimal cost.

Would a company cut quality to increase profit? Yes? Then so should you.