I'm going to write something of my own thought process in regards to this particular encounter...
5 years ago, just before they shut down entirely, I worked for TRU; worked there for nearly 11.5 years at that point. For the past probably 3-4 years before that, holiday times were the absolute worst. Overnight shifts that were 10, 12 hours long, occasionally longer, for 6 days a week. And at that point, even your "day off" is just a night that you're not at work, you're still actually working at least part of every day in the week. One year I know that I just gave up shaving for all of November and December because it was just too much effort (normally the longest I would go is probably about two weeks).
If I could spend some hours having a hot bath, an actual warm cooked meal instead of microwave food or cereal, and sleep in a generally relaxing environment...$500 would be well worth it to me. I don't have any experience with a "black company" that puts on abusive hours of office work, but I can still relate to the experience.