love becomes hope becomes delusion

I am sick and tired of being yelled at and being dumped on. My friends/co-workers at work are sick of being yelled at and dumped on. So the question is, how long can a company stay frugal and ignore rewarding employees both individually and as a group in the name of frugality and tough times?

It has been four years now that the tech economy has been doing poorly and my company has for the entire time had a policy of not giving raises, promotions, Christmas parties, project celebrations, milestone celebrations, or anything of the like. For the first couple of years employees were ok tightening their belts and doing a job without care for reward since times were so bad and they were happy to have a job. But how long can employees act like robots and just come to work day in and day out without care for personal reward? There are now a couple of new categories of employees. The free-loaders who are taking advantage of the lethargic attitude of the entire company who do roughly 30 minutes of real work a day and hide behind ‘working from home’ and ‘answer by delayed email.’ The second type of employee is those that want to care and work hard and do the right thing for the company but have been kicked so hard by the free loaders and the self-promoters (those that will do anything to get ahead especially sabotage those that get in their way) that they just get burned out.

I am in the second category. Each morning I wake up trying to be excited about work and what I do. Each morning I try to have a positive outlook on life and work. Each day I get kicked around like a stray, mangy, 3 legged puppy. Why do we keep coming in day after day trying to change the world? Is it stupidity (definition: performing the same action day after day expecting a different result), or is it hope? Hope that maybe something will happen that will make my day worth while. Hope that something will renew my job for working and my company. Hope that I will meet someone who is just perfect for me.

Who says hope is bad? But when does hope become delusion?