Asklemmy

How to have more free time? It is basically the question you're asking. What to do with my working life? It is the question you should ask yourself, because you will spend a ton of time at work.

You're not exactly a slave. You're not sentenced to work at your company until the end. You can find a useful place to work for and do something useful to make the world a better place. But it is hard, especially when you are young. Because everyone want a useful job and those places need people that are ready to work. You can also not care about your job in your entire life and just want to enjoy selfish free time. It is not because you choose one path that you cannot change. About career advice, How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You) from Waitbutwhy is good.

Anyway, I am not here to tell you what to do with your life. Here come the advices to do as few as possible at work.

There 3 ways to improve your condition:

1. Change your mindset
2. Change your team
3. Change your job

Change your mindset

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. In a lot of western countries, you can protect yourself from toxic workplaces by knowing your rights.

Changing your mindset is the easiest.

Analyze your job and the objectives conditions of existence it creates.

Who are you working for? Greater good? Old rich asses? What value does it create? For you? What are you learning? What impact on your health? On your personal life? For them? How much money do you create directly? How much money do you create indirectly? Why do I care about my job? Am I too poor to afford to get fired? Is it just conditioning that makes me fear to loose my job? ...

A lot has been written to help you. Just learn from the bests!

Krisis-group wrote Manifesto against Labour It has an historical interest but I find the critics of that work more interesting.

Abolition of work is closer to r/antiwork philosophy.

But I find, the best books to be: Bonjour Paresse of Corinne Maier and Demotivational Training of Guillaume Paoli. I think the book you should begin with is demotivational training from Guilluame Paoli. I put the libgen link at the end of the post.

Bonjour Paresse is nice too but it is adapted to big companies. Depending of your company, it is not as useful. She is also too pessimistic in my opinion. Life is not that bad once you found a lazy job and you can make the world better with a useful job.

From the wikipedia page of Bonjour Paresse:

Maier's Ten Counterproposals

Sometimes referred to as the Ten Commandments for the Idle, these counterproposals have been widely reproduced on the Web in a shortened form:

You are a modern-day slave. There is no scope for personal fulfilment. You work for your pay-check at the end of the month, full stop.
It's pointless to try to change the system. Opposing it simply makes it stronger.
What you do is pointless. You can be replaced from one day to the next by any cretin sitting next to you. So work as little as possible and spend time (not too much, if you can help it) cultivating your personal network so that you're untouchable when the next restructuring comes around.
You're not judged on merit, but on whether you look and sound the part. Use much leaden jargon: people will suspect you have an inside track
Never accept a position of responsibility for any reason. You'll only have to work harder for what amounts to peanuts.
Make a beeline for the most useless positions, (research, strategy and business development), where it is impossible to assess your 'contribution to the wealth of the firm'. Avoid 'on the ground' operational roles like the plague.
Once you've found one of these plum jobs, never move. It is only the most exposed who get fired.
Learn to identify kindred spirits who, like you, believe the system is absurd through discreet signs (quirks in clothing, peculiar jokes, warm smiles).
Be nice to people on short-term contracts. They are the only people who do any real work.
Tell yourself that the absurd ideology underpinning this corporate bullshit cannot last for ever. It will go the same way as the dialectical materialism of the communist system. The problem is knowing when...

The most useful is "Make a beeline for the most useless positions, (research, strategy and business development), where it is impossible to assess your 'contribution to the wealth of the firm'. Avoid 'on the ground' operational roles like the plague." for you, imo.

Also, be ready for when the bullshit will end in your company. When they will fire a lot of people (like in Meta right now for example).

Change your team

Try to change of team if they are toxic. Otherwise "change your team" by raising their social awareness. Create a trade union section with your colleagues. Take your time and don't get caught. Even in places where it is illegal to bust union by firing people, you can get fired. Ask for help to unions close to your home.

It is harder to exploit unionized workers that are aware of their rights.

Change your job

Maybe, after reading this you will think that you need to change of job. Do it if your job sucks that much. Prepare yourself before leaving your job. Find some contacts in your network.

If you like the people you are working with. A union can make your job better. Making your job better is the most realistic goal that your union section can follow.

Link to the books:

Manifesto against Labour: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/krisis-group-manifesto-against-labour

Demotivational training from Guillaume Paoli: https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=6154F6A6BDBB780E6782D27C8C70565C