Themeatfleet & Boembus : exactly. Finally got there ! And as professional "commercial" pilots we will always continue to do that in order to put food on the table.Offered B747 twice with Saudia in my career. IN GF, considered it again when things looked grim. I could never justify family life in a Saudi ex-pat compound but quite liked the deal on all three occasions.
Settled in GF for nearly 20years but finally booted out with no notice after a bit of a battle. Had to fight hard for three month's "in lieu" of notice and saw lots of reductions by messing about with other terms.
But we, surely , know what we are signing up for on day one eh ?
Went off to the City Mall, bought myself my long-service watch, looked in the mirror and thanked myself ,climbed into my repatriation flight (sub-load in practice, of course) and left.
Given all events, would do it all again in the same circumstances. That is why, according to our profession, we fly for " Hire or reward". Purely commercial on both sides of the table.