The poster was talking about an $8/hr temp job. He's already made a decision to trade dignity for necessity.
Defending dignity at 'all costs' makes it sound like you've never had to make a hard decision in your life. This is a case where the right move is to keep your head down, do the bare minimum, work on your portfolio on the side and bolt for a better job as soon as you can.
If everyone does that instead of speaking up, the situation for the people at the bottom never improves. If enough workers reject their poor conditions, the situation might gradually get better.
You can choose to put your own interests first by sticking around and not saying anything or those of your fellow workers by taking a stand. It's a question of values.
The keyword is "might". In the meantime, OP is out of a job and I just
Hope he has some savings to fall back on because I doubt that temp agency will be looking to take him back.
If the guy can't eat, he will shortly not be able to do a lot of defending of human dignity. If you think it should be defended at all cost, then surely you'll send him the $8/hr he lost by speaking up? Or do you just mean "at all cost to other people"?
I agree with your spirit here, but solving this problem requires playing the long game.
Human dignity takes many forms. Some would argue that it is harmed in some way by office management overseeing silly giveaways. Others would argue that it is harmed by losing your means to provide for yourself through the consequences of your actions.
I think the latter loss of dignity is greater than the former.
