Marx gave us some valuable insights into the workings of the capitalist economy. Leftists, on the other hand, not so much -- especially in the last 40 years. During the 1930s, Communists helped organize unions and participated in the black struggle in the south. Then the Stalin-Ribbentrop treaty, and some communists discovered they were "premature anti-fascists". Crazy! (Uncle Karl said, "History repeats itself first as tragedy, second as farce".)
I identify as an old-style American socialist--reference Eugene Debs, d. 1926. "The left", as it exists in academia, identity politics, Portland, OR, et al has become a farce. Not much left of that version of the left -- a few old guys.
As to work, the past of work, the future of work... I've been bitching about work for decades. Modifying a quote from Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Workers (whose work is houses of hospitality for the poor and homeless and peace) "I commend work, and I abhor it."
Work that is an expression of the individual person's (not 'worker's) creativity and energy is a good thing. Digging up the soil and planting a garden is good work. Stoop labor from dawn till dusk cultivating crops for ConAgra is grim and dehumanizing. Sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day screwing around with meaningless data is soul killing, even if it isn't as bad as stoop labor. Doing charitable work that is funded for the sake of appearances alienates the better angels of our nature. On and on.
What it will take to reduce the work week is a seizure of power from the plutocratic kleptocracy by The People, and following through on abandoning all of the falsity of consumer culture (which has been cultivated by the capitalists for well over a century) and engaging in what might be an agonizing appraisal of what is good and worth keeping, and what is not.
Seizing the wealth and power of the Plutonic-kleptocrats will be extraordinarily difficult, so in the meantime, I recommend people who can do so, reduce their needs and wants so that they can keep themselves afloat on less the 40 hours per week, maybe 30, maybe 25. This is no easy thing, especially after 40 years of inflation and stagnant wages. It's like unto impossible in high-cost areas, like San Francisco, NYC, LA, Washington D.C., Boston, etc.
Antinatalism comes in handy for young people trying to do this. Raising a family pretty much forces one to work however much one can, and that still might not be enough,