There is a difference between "middle class" and "working class" jobs in this respect. If you're working class, you're considered 100% expendible and easily replaceable. This is not empirical; it's ideological. If you're a "middle-class" professional, it is often taken as a sign of "power" that you're willing to help someone else; also, as a professional you're considered less replacable -- or at any rate, everyone knows your "learning curve" is the price they have to pay to replace your. For example, a technical writer (what I do) is seldom functional for a good three months after hire.
So, I commend your fellow feeling, but suggest that you and Chuck Grimes live in different social universes.
I put terms in quotation marks, because with respect to most things, we are all working class inasmuch as we must work to live.
Joanna B.