anti-work
/ˈænti wɜːrk/
CommonA stance that questions or rejects work as the central obligation and organizing principle of life.
Ranges from mild burnout venting to committed political philosophy. The r/antiwork subreddit made the term mainstream, though reactions to it were mixed.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | I didn't quit because I was lazy. I quit because I was spending 50 hours a week making someone else rich. Full anti-work mode. | Leaving work was a principled decision, not a personal failure. | reddit, 2022 |
| 02 | My parents think anti-work means I don't want a job. I want to not need one to survive. | The term is about systemic critique, not personal laziness. | x, 2022 |
| 03 | r/antiwork hit 2 million members and I feel like something actually shifted. | The growth of the community signals a real change in how people are thinking about work. | reddit, 2022 |
| 04 | My therapist asked why I'm so exhausted. I showed her my schedule. She went a little anti-work herself. | The workload was so unsustainable that even a professional pushed back on it. | tiktok, 2023 |
Use it when
- Someone is questioning whether full-time employment should be a life requirement.
- Describing the community or movement around work refusal or reduction.
- Someone is venting about how work has taken over their life.
- Talking about reducing or leaving work for structural, not personal, reasons.
Do not use it when
- You just hate your specific job.Use “quiet-quitting-movement” instead.
- You mean someone is lazy.
Anti-work vs quiet quitting
anti-work
Anti-work questions the whole premise of work as a life requirement.
VS
quiet-quitting-movement
Quiet quitting is about staying employed but refusing to go beyond what the job actually requires.
Origin and context
The term has philosophical roots going back decades, but its internet use exploded in 2021 and 2022 when r/antiwork became a major cultural touchpoint during the pandemic-era labor disruption.
- First seen
- 2020s
- Confidence
- medium
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/anti-workUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0