Adolescents act out because they quickly realize that the adults in their life give a lot more attention to problems than to things going well. I think this makes sense, and there's a psychological basis for this. I'm not surprised then that it works the same way in the workplace. No one is going to be willing to change things unless they feel the pain associated with not changing it. If someone keeps putting out fires at the expense of their work-life balance or health, then their superiors will simply direct their finite attention at the fires that weren't put out - just as the honor roll student with a dropout sibling probably doesn't get a ton of attention from their parents.