You think putting effort into the quality of your work is a waste of time if there's no additional pay involved?
When I start a job I make certain that I understand what the requirements and expectations of that job are and what the pay/benefits are. At that point we have an agreement, which I have no problem living up to. If the employer wants MORE than the originally agreed upon amount of, or a higher quality of work, then they need to expand the pay/benefits to befit that extra time, effort, etc.... Life is an investment. IF the return on that investment is not sufficient, then things need to change.
Our work week is generally between 40-60 hours. Most of that time is actually spent doing our jobs. We're on salary. Almost nobody sucks up to leadership. It wouldn't really affect anything if they did. This isn't remotely a problem here in the real world.
MY work week is 40 hours. Not 41, not 50. If you want something more than that, expect to compensate me for the extra. In all three major employers I've had, there have been significant numbers of loafers and do-nothings who "earned" their pay by brown-nosing and kissing ass. In some cases it has benefitted them tremendously. Trust me, it happens more than people would like to think.
My free time is worth considerably more to me than even my current OT rate of pay would compensate me for. That's why, despite being offered OT on a weekly basis, the only part of it that I will do is the MANDATORY storm-related OT. Nothing else.