i genuinely don't know why i am continuing this as i don't care for any of these people all that much but i guess stopping now would be weird but in my opinion what you described was not trying to ruin lives but trying to just squeeze as much productivity out of the agreement as possible it is unfortunate that in many cases the reality's of employment make responding difficult but this is an unfortunate world, the only responses that i can think of are unions or seeking a job elsewhere but both are easier said than done and both don't always work out.