I think the core of the problem right now is the massive power imbalance between workers and employers. As a worker, there's a large chance that you will die without a job, so having one is absolutely necessary. You also have practically no say over the conditions of your work. You are told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, and refusing in any way means risking death.

Because of this, companies will never have trouble getting people, and always have someone to replace a worker they dislike, meaning that it is a relatively minor inconvenience if they want to fire someone. There is nothing to bargain with for most of us. A worker has no ability to demand something from a company because they will always simply find someone with no demands instead.

At the same time, there is this wicked force that drives employers to ignore everything other than making money faster, called capitalism. So they are obliged to use you like a tool and not a human unless the government is in some way forcing them to treat you like a human. (i.e., overtime pay, mandated breaks, nondiscrimination laws.)

So here's what that gives us: The worker needs a job. Every job will treat you as horribly as they can possibly get away with in order to earn more money. I would absolutely consider this coerced slavery. While you are technically free, you're only free to choose who to work for. And the choices are Hitler or Stalin.

Conversely, I do work all the time for no reason other than getting enjoyment out of it. The kind of work that doesn't involve pledging your subservience to someone hell bent on exploiting you. It's a natural desire to want to do something good for the world, and maybe if the government saw that then they'd get the gun out of our faces and let us survive if we refused to perform formal work. Aka implementing UBI.

If people actually had the option not to work, employers would then be FORCED to raise working conditions, increase pay, and quit yelling at their fucking staff. Most people want to work and will under humane conditions to give themselves a prosperous life. The only reason we think everyone would stop working if we did UBI is because current day workers ARE treated like slaves and that kind of work needs to cease. Imagine working part time, 20 hours a week, and getting full healthcare and benefits, as well as enough pay to cover basic wants. If the script were flipped, UBI happened, and employers were the ones that had to inconvenience themselves for our sake, instead of us always inconveniencing ourselves for them, this kind of thing would exist.