There are plenty of people that are passionate about their work. Just because it’s programming computers and not curing cancer doesn’t change this. It also doesn’t mean they don’t lead full lives. It doesn’t mean they are being taken advantage of.

In my experience people that claim otherwise are just getting less out of work than they could. Kind of a waste of 40 hours a week.

(Sure, bad situations exist etc. etc. but that’s just true of everything.)