One thing I do now, to test employers, is see how they handle me being inconsistent for a small period. You could be a A+ employee for a year, but one week of being a bit unreliable, or not as consistent as you were before, undoes EVERYTHING you did before. Any hint of change in your consistency is examined quickly. Around 99.999% of employers do not put more than a few minutes into deeper empathic thinking into what's going on with you. Not even “I can tell you feel bad today, go home.” I'm talking more nuanced thinking into how the job may be affecting your overall life. They are not going to think about how to put the most fair work load on you. They want to find the employees that will take the pay, the workload, and they will continually try their hardest to squeeze the most out of people. If people don't accept the offer, that's when they decide to up pay and better work conditions.
I don't care how much of friends we are at work, or anything like that. How you treat me when your management/boss hat is on, is how I will respond to you when you turn that personality on. I won't hold it against you later, unless it was malicious, but I also won't let it fly. And there's no doubt people develop two personalities to get through this cartoonish culture of work. You're joking and having a good time, throw a work question out, and even their tone and enunciation changes. You hear their work tone.
It all used to stress me out and make ME feel guilty. I felt guilty when I was inconsistent for a tiny period, even if the job had crushed me down, barely paid me, and expected everything from me.
More than anything, don't be afraid to be assertive at your job, with the expectation they may let you go for it. Because if you can find a workplace that actually takes your criticism, maybe even tries to find middleground, then you'll find a place that doesn't have their head in their cheeks.