In terms of a given job I understand wanting people to be able to do a certain degree of their tasks without being told. I don't take issue with the general desire to see initiative. My issue is the ways in which the modern labor landscape expects you to manufacture your own initiative 110% of the time.
I've worked retail, food service, and a couple fairly generic desk jobs. Here I will focus on the desk jobs because I think they tend to be the most reliant on the expectation that “you want to be there”. They assume an internalized sense of individualism that means you should be oh-so-thankful to have a desk job instead of manual labor or something. They also have an understanding that you may fear income loss, which means they can demand that you be self sufficient to operate by yourself in a grey cube with as much or as little instruction as they feel like giving you. I don't want to have to be a self starter to feel like a valuable person. I draw motivation from genuine community and teamwork, not the performance of a workplace being “like a family” to justify less pay. For me, a good workplace would be like college friend groups studying together. Sitting at a table, loosely doing similar tasks under the same professor and able to ask occasional questions or make small talk. But also with a living wage (and in the long run, the dissolution of the profit motive but that's a separate rant lol).
I understand this sub to be a diverse place and I think many people here are probably better than me at being productive through solo work at their desk at home. I certainly appreciate that, though I depend on things like working closely in groups and being in-person social in my workplace to make my day better and my work feel important. I think the modern workplace should allow room for both, or anything in between.