His idea seemed to be to evoke work songs and slave labor, full of meaningless tasks.

Well it gave me the satisfaction we all get from doing a meaningless task like a Sudoku outstandingly well.

Destabilization i.e. lack of credit for work, meaningless tasks etc.

Set any empty, meaningless task before them and they will mindlessly pursue it for generations.

When that meaningless task was finished, he sat down on a fallen log.

May I perform any other meaningless and degrading tasks for you?

For a full ten minutes Ruth busied herself around the bedroom, finding a dozen small, meaningless tasks that required her attention.

I asked, thinking of all the hours I'd wasted on meaningless tasks.

Periodically, the inner 12 would assign mundane, meaningless tasks to various of their respective recruits.

There was nothing for the mammoths here, nothing but this insane abandoned creature and its endless, meaningless task.