Hello fellow disgruntled workers!
I'm currently looking for new office work, and I want to immediately start cultivating routines that will allow me the most personal free time to work on my own projects. I'm a firm believer in “boss makes a dollar, I make a dime,” so I don't believe hard work really amounts to career progress; I'd rather spend as much time as I can get away with working on things that are important for my family. I also just like the sense of rebellion it gives me.
So what are your tips for claiming more time back for yourself? I don't want to make life harder for other workers on my level or below me, and I don't want to be a social curmudgeon (although I'll entertain the last idea if really necessary).
A lot of my ideas, so far, are the basic ones: Make your presence known to the office but don't linger around, don't accept extra work, always -appear- busy, learn to automate as much as possible without sharing that info, etc. I'll add more ideas and commentary from posts later!
TL;DR I'd like to know how to keep, or even gain, as much free time at work as possible. Any advice on how to do that? Feel free to give generic or specialized industry tips too!