Was rereading some stuff about european manorialism (feudal economic model) and a line really stuck out to me. Something like "left to their own determination farmers will optimize for resilience, not surplus production." But surplus production is the resource extracted and used by landowning elites to support their lifestyles. So a lot of the mechanics of that system emerged out of the need to coerce farmers into producing surplus against their own interests. And yes to some extent surplus and resilience are interrelated; but not really if the surplus is going to someone else.

Anyway the words and the details have changed but the fundamental relationship is still the same, and I think fits what you're describing as well. Left alone a worker would optimize for a safer or less stressful environment, or a shorter workday, over surplus production. But that surplus remains the resource that supports the lifestyle of people higher up in the hierarchy. You can only align these interests so far and they will never perfectly match.