It's not just service employees getting screwed at every turn.
I am a software engineer for a publicly traded technology company which underpins much, if not most, of domestic and international trade. I built code for this company that you either directly or indirectly use daily if you purchase anything in the world. It's one of those companies that few may have heard of, but everyone uses our tech at some point. One of the “perks” of working for a publicly traded company is that you can typically purchase company stock at a discounted price, called an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). I have invested heavily in the ESPP and held onto my pre-IPO stock options because, having seen the code and the competition, this company was going up.
Yesterday, the company announced they are being acquired by a private holding company. The board unanimously agreed to sell the company at about half of the peak per-share price. I will barely be getting my money back from my ESPP, less actually because of the runaway inflation. The C-suite and board gets their huge payout; those of us who believed and were in it for the long haul just got screwed out of our 5 to 10 to 20 year plans for weathering the current shitstorm. I'm fortunate because my pre-IPO options are “in the money,” meaning they are worth more than their “price.” I wouldn't have been rich, but I would have been able to live out my life, pay the bills, and take care of my sick partner.
Most of my newer co-workers have stock options that are “underwater,” meaning their options are worth less than the price for which the company was sold. Upon completion of the sale, these options will be canceled, and those workers will get nothing.
And it that wasn't enough fuckery for you, the board and C-suite get to sell stock during blackout periods. During a stock blackout, rank-and-file workers can't sell stock because of insider trading rules. Blackouts can and do apply to almost the entire year with maybe a grand total of ten weeks when one can sell stock. But for some reason, the board and C-suite don't have those rules and their trades occur during blackouts (matter of public record). The stock price tends to be higher during blackouts (imagine that!), so rank-and-file workers are unable to leverage those higher stock prices to their advantage.
The game is rigged. Even (especially?) if you play by the rules and invest for the long term, you can have your future sold out from under you.