> I fought ruthlessly.
I get it, but honestly, why? I have seen a few times someone being let go or about to and successfully negotiated out of it - but that person was always gone within a year anyway. The relationship is permanently damaged by that point, the employer cannot trust you're just buying time to get a new role and jump ship, and the employee will always have their guard up.
Survival? Fear is a powerful motivator.
A workplace can have good work and great coworkers, but have truly awful people in positions of power over you. Which you may not realize until you're suddenly at risk.