I've a correction to my previous post. It appears what is really happening when your company is asking you to "bend" the rules, in for example rostering, is called the
double bind problem .
Reference here and google it yourself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Bind
In psychological terms, it appears to be asking you to believe two contradictory things at the same time.
For example
1. You will be punished if you break the rules (by a regulator if you have an accident while fatigued).
2. You will be punished if you refuse to fly because you decide you are fatigued.
It is suggested in the literature that this may be one of the causes of Schizophrenia. It's certainly a cause of stress.
Its actually the company that has the
moral hazard problem because of the lack of blame that attaches to them if you commit "pilot error". There is no penalty for them in doing the wrong thing (at the personal level) even though they know that all will suffer by it.
Apparently this issue is being raised in Cirrus aircraft fitted with the ballistic parachute. The suggestion is that pilots get their Cirri in more trouble (and have more accidents than comparable aircraft) because they can rely on the chute to save them.