The Anti-Work Movement: Lazy or Legitimate?
“Our director of HR just came into mine and my colleagues office to tell my colleague, who is pumping for her 4 month old baby, that she can’t keep her breast pump materials (i.e bottle drying rack, and zipped pump case on the corner of her desk as it does not make the office professional.”
“Let’s normalize not confusing someone’s free time with their availability.”
“My boss asked why I don’t want to work anymore. I said it’s not that I don’t want to work – it’s that I don’t want to work for you.”
These rather simple expressions of frustration over one person’s interaction with their boss struck a chord with many Americans, especially young people in the workforce, who had already begun to wonder: What if the problem isn’t simply bad jobs, but work itself?
This idea, once reserved for academic critique and radical lifestyles like those of medieval garden hermits who simply lived in the gardens of wealthy estate owners to add to a whimsical ambiance, or, more contemporarily speaking, people who identify with anarchist and communist beliefs, now has a wide and internet-viral audience and is coined the anti-work movement. On Reddit, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), disillusioned workers gather to organize and picture a world with less work, reformed work culture, and for some, none at all. The r/antiwork subreddit, which appears to serve as an unofficial digital headquarters for the movement, boasts a whopping 2.9 million members. The core principle: Work, as it currently exists, is broken – and maybe has been from the start.
The words “anti-work” are strong and almost tongue-in-cheek, and for many, immediately conjure associations with laziness, privilege and an unrealistic grasp of the world – 20-somethings or privileged minimalists rejecting capitalism in theory while living off generational wealth. Is that what this movement is really about? Or is it about revolution? Something else entirely?
The anti-work movement didn’t start with Gen-Z, without bills to pay, quitting retail jobs and sharing it to the world, accompanied by a trending sped-up pop song on TikTok. Philosophers and thinkers have long critiqued labor systems and suggested solutions that parallel, and likely inspired, the modern anti-work movement. In 1883, Paul Lafargue, who is, to no great surprise, Karl Marx’s son-in-law, wrote “The Right to be Lazy,” in which he argued that the working class is deserving of and should fight for not only better working conditions, but also fewer cumulative working hours. In the 1930s, British mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russel advocated for world with a four-hour work day in which, “no one is compelled to work more than four hours a day every person possessed of scientific curiosity will be able to indulge it, and every painter will be able to paint without starving, however excellent his pictures may be.”
More recently, an American anthropologist David Graeber wrote a book called “Bullshit Jobs” which argued that a majority of jobs exist to simply keep people busy. He split these meaningless jobs into five categories. One – Flunkies, who work to make their superiors feel more important. Two – Goons, who deceive or harm others on behalf of their employer. Three – Duct tapers, who continuously fix problems that have a permanent solution that’s not enacted. Four – Box tickers, who uphold the illusion that something useful is happening where it’s not. Finally, Five – Taskmasters, who create extra work for people who don’t need it. While Graeber himself identifies with anarchy, “Bullshit Jobs” received positive acclaim from relatively mainstream sources like The New Yorker, The Guardian and The Times.
The anti-work subreddit was created by Doreen Ford, a 30-year-old who envisioned it as a space for “those who want to end work, are curious about ending work, want to get the most out of a work-free life, or want more information on anti-work ideas.” Ford, in an interview with Fox News, went into more detail about the movement: “We want people to do things that they’re rewarded for and they feel like they’re in a good spot in their life and their job respects them.” For Ford, his calling is dog walking. He said, “I love working with dogs! If I had to do this for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t complain. Dogs are wonderful animals,” in a Fox News interview.
The movement believes that, in an ideal world, jobs are more than work, and self-identified members of the movement come in unexpected forms that defy what most might picture: an unemployed Gen Z-er mooching off their parents’ income or government support as they play video games for days on end. R/antiwork features doctors conceiving strike strategies to allow them to prioritize their patients over profit and shifts so long that they can’t adequately show up for their patients, and caregivers advocating for improved government programs to incentivize those caring for elderly or disabled people in their lives.
For years, it was a small corner of Reddit, similar in size to smaller niches like r/twinpeaks, r/charcoaldrawing and r/amish. At this time, people shared stories, advice and comedic anecdotes surrounding anti-work culture.
Then came the pandemic, turning work on its head like it had with nearly everything.
COVID-19 capsized the global labor market. Essential workers were forced into high-risk environments while white-collar employees discovered they could work on Teams or Zoom from the comfort of their own home offices with their dogs at their feet. Millions were laid off, and many reassessed their relationship with work altogether. What followed was the “Big Quit,” also called the “Great Resignation” or “Great Reshuffle,” where record numbers of Americans quit their jobs in pursuit of better pay, more flexibility, or simply refusing the return to what they saw to be the old normal.
It was a perfect storm, and r/anti work exploded in popularity. The Reddit thread grew in size and power. In 2021, members of the subreddit supported workers striking against Kellog’s cereal, flooding their job application sites with fake applications, making it impossible to replace employees with legitimate candidates.
While the term “anti-work” sounds like a joke, a slacker’s dream, the ideas behind it are far from unserious. At its core, the movement calls into question why we accept work as a moral obligation and economic necessity, even when it leaves many worn out, underpaid and unhappy.
That said, the movement hasn’t survived the public eye unscathed.
In the Fox News interview with Doreen Ford, host Jesse Waters didn’t try to hide how ridiculous he found the movement to be. He told Ford that he “didn’t understand what this is about except maybe people just being lazy,” and cut the interview short, joking, “Thank you so much, we got to run. We got to pay the bills.”
Similar concern surrounding the movement was expressed by South African journalist Moroesi Ntsikeng who wrote, “My first thought was a bitter ‘must be nice’ when I read more about this exodus. This was followed by an internal rant about how privileged followers of this movement must be to even have such choices.” For context, South Africa’s unemployment rate is a massive 31.9%, with a disproportionate impact on young people who experience a 59.7% unemployment rate. Most attribute this issue to a simple lack of jobs.
Even in the face of criticism, the anti-work movement continues to resonate. It has evolved from a fringe internet ideology into a significant cultural and economic critique, reflecting a shift in how people, especially younger generations, view labor, productivity and purpose. Where past generations may have accepted the grind as an unchangeable fact of life, an honor even, many today are asking: Why? Why should we tie our worth to our output? Why should rest feel like a guilty indulgence rather than a basic human need?
The world is changing. Automation is advancing, productivity is skyrocketing, and yet wages for many remain stagnant. Wealth continues to pool at the top, while millions feel like they’re running in place. In that context, the anti-work conversation isn’t just about slacking off or quitting — it’s about redefining what a good life looks like. It’s about imagining systems where dignity doesn’t depend on a paycheck, where people can contribute meaningfully to their communities without sacrificing their mental health, family time, or personal passions.
Many within the movement don’t want to opt out of society; they want to reimagine it. They want a world where nursing mothers aren’t penalized for pumping milk at their desks. Where creative pursuits, caregiving and rest are valued alongside more traditional definitions of labor. Where people are supported not just to survive, but to thrive.
Of course, dismantling centuries-old ideas about work won’t happen overnight. But the conversations sparked on r/antiwork and beyond are a starting point. They’re a signal that something is deeply out of alignment — and that people are no longer content to suffer in silence. Whether it’s quitting a job, demanding reasonable flexibility, unionizing for better conditions, or just daring to ask “What if there was another way?”, the anti-work movement speaks to a quiet revolution already underway.
So maybe the real question isn’t why so many people are fed up with work. Maybe the better question is — why wouldn’t they be?
Source – https://whitmanwire.com/feature/2025/04/17/gen-z-reimagining-the-anti-work-movement/