I've never enjoyed this hostile type of environment at work, but I absolutely love being the guy who just lays down the no bullshit card in the backstabby situation. My job right now is trying to unionize making it pretty tense, but regardless, I am VERY candid with my employers that they do not pay me, or anyone else, enough to live. “I mean sure, the pay is okay. Granted, it's not something I can reliably support myself on and if I owned a business and couldn't pay my workers enough to live on, I'd be pretty embarrassed and feel like an abject failure, but hey, you guys pay 50 cents more than the other guys, right?” and then I just let the silence fill the room.
Otherwise, they say jump, I say how high. I'm out there working my little tail off every day and going above and beyond. I'm just a bit of a keener. I know my hard work will never be reimbursed. I just enjoy being good at my job. I just also like having a roof over my head and being able to eat. So I make up for lack of pay with unrelenting sass.
I have yet to meet the union rep, but I hear he's a fan of my work.