“cruel and oppressive government or rule.” It kinda comes with the weight that you have no free will to leave and do something entirely different.
Is it really cruel to make you jump in your air conditioned car and drive to work? While listening to music or a podcast…Then work in an amazing office with fellow gifted engineers and civilized people. Same you did 3 years ago 5 days a week and now 40% less?
I would rather drive the car through a beautiful landscape (that I pick), instead in rush hour trafic that I don't have a choice in..
>Then work in an amazing office..
That I did't choose...
>with fellow gifted engineers and civilized people.
That I didn't pick..
There is a poem in Malayalam with a portion that goes like this "Bhandura kaanjanakkotilanengilum bandhanam bandhanam thanne paaril". It means, "bondage is bondage even if you are in a golden cage".
So the point is that office work is vastly less freedom (thus a kind of oppression), even with all its perks (that is for the few that indeed have those perks).