I believe work is closer to slavery. Maybe not a slave in a plantation but you'd be surprised to find out how much freedom a household slave in ancient Rome used to have. As in classic slavery, the scope of modern slavery exceeds the employer-employee relationship. It has to do with the entire social economic culture. Individuals are encouraged to spend and consume, these provide steam to the engines of the human society, which in turn creates jobs for individuals and products for them to consume.
I believe this is what the movie Matrix is talking about. Human batteries power the ever-present machine.
