If you enjoy it like I do, you're never going to stop yourself anyway. If this is the culture now, then it becomes, "yup, this is my a* unstable career, but I love the work."
Yeah this is part of the problem. If you try to fight anything, you've immediately got a target on your back.
I tried setting boundaries with a CTO who was pressuring me everyday to work on an "optional" side project. I hated working with him because he wanted control over every little detail. On large projects it was easy to just do tickets. But something small, I had to listen to his bs thoughts and criticisms constantly. More so than working.
After I told him I didn't want to do it 100 times I finally gave in and said it was because I didn't want to work with him specifically. HR contacted me the next day and said some of my comments made someone uncomfortable. They couldn't say what, or who.
This happened 6 times over the next couple of weeks. At 3 I stopped talking to anyone, period. Just to test it out. Still I was saying nasty stuff to someone.
Needless to say I was fired without reason and never given a chance to talk about what was happening, because nothing was happening.
Right, the very last thing I want is to be around "leadership." Instead of 80% of my day being politics, 150% of my day becomes politics. And let's add in the bonus of having to constantly listen to veritable losers insult employees all day, and suddenly have to know who's cheating on their spouse.
It's just more crap you have to protect and support in order to protect and support yourself.
I think people who have been in offices their entire lives and have never done physical labor may have psychological damage. This is basically how "Karens" are born. There's usually a better shot that veterans, people who grew up on a farm, or came from some rough jobs are better to work with.
First of all, you can talk to them like human beings, rather than having to put on a customer service mask in order to avoid getting a target on your back.
They also know the value of work, and that stuff gets done from work. Not everyone knows this. Some people think talking gets work done. Just schedule another meeting. Let's do 3/day until it gets done.