For someone who is not antiwork but still should learn to be mindful about the wonders of worklife.
You can do your job without your job becoming who you are. Leave your work at work. Put in the hours you agreed to, not more.
HR is not your friend nor is it there to do good for you. HR exists to protect the company.
If the building hasn't burned down and nobody was injured: It's been a good day.
Beyond that isn't your problem to worry about, so don't stress about it.
Take every opportunity you can to learn and grow but don't over exert yourself. Everything you learn can be used at a different company. Never know where your learned knowledge can take you.
Don't be afraid to ask questions. If you don't know something, it's better to ask and do it right the first time than fuck it up and have to waste more time. If they get mad for you asking, bail. People who can't accept questions are people who can't lead.
Do your job to the best of your abilities but don't be loyal as they won't be loyal to you when things are looking down.
If they offer any sort of benefits; PTO, College Funding, Health Care, etc; take advantage of everything that makes sense to you. Don't let ANYONE make you feel guilty for using it. The company is going to use you. Use them right back.
Leave work shit at work and home shit at home, whenever possible. Be chummy with your coworkers but don't mistake them for friends. "We're like a family" is bullshit. The company will throw you to the curb if needed.
You can have a friendly boss, but that doesn't necessarily mean your boss is your friend. Just remember there's always a power dynamic there, even if it feels like there's not.
Don't take it too seriously. Remember that you owe your employer not one goddamn thing more than what you're being paid for, and they will not pay you one goddamn cent more than they absolutely must. Their bullshit stops being your problem the second you clock out; leave the stress behind, too.
They do not value you as a person, so you should not value them as anything more than a means to an end. There's no such thing as a single-company career anymore. They can and will fire you without notice or consideration, so feel no guilt about leaving them the instant a better job comes along.
There's no substitute for knowing what you're talking about. Learn about as much as you can both in your role and in the broader setting.
This can make you invaluable, even indispensable.
The purpose is to increase your utility to your work environment for you benefit! To leverage it to get into the role, position, pay & responsibilities you want next.
The employer may decide your utility should benefit them and give you Jobs no one else wants, or give you too much work. This is to be resisted.
They're going to try to use you. Only way to win is use them back harder.
The business sees you as a replaceable cog in their machine. They’re paying you to do the job now, but they could replace you with someone else and it’s all the same to them.
So to you, the business is a replaceable source of income. It’s ok to like your job, and it’s ok to like your coworkers, but if at some point you choose to move on, you just do it and no hard feelings. Don’t give into any guilt trips or gaslighting you to want to stay: this is a business arrangement, and as soon as you leave they’ll just hire someone else to replace you.
Outside of that, just show up and leave on time and don’t go out of your way to piss people off, and you should do fine.
Try to establish yourself as someone who is helpful, but be mindful of the boundaries you're pushing when you make the offer. Anything you choose to do for free once becomes a part of your job duties forevermore.
Imagine sisyphus happy. I work full time but instead of hoping for a better future (which I also do) I enjoy the slots where I can listen to podcasts or radio or even read a book.
Learn your local / state / federal employment laws. Employers will try to fuck you over due to your ignorance. If they try to pull something illegal on you, figure out who to report it to. I had one of my first employers "Adjust" my clock in and out times by a few minutes sometimes and really what they were doing is short changing me of overtime pay.
Most of the people I've worked with in the games industry I've seen get promised promotions and never gotten them or gotten them years after they should. Most promotions and significant pay raises come from switching jobs. 2-3 years at a job is plenty of time.
IF your goal is just to keep your head down and keep a paycheck, your goal is to 1) keep up the appearance of business and 2) be easy to manage. As long as none of you behavior reaches your direct report, you're golden. Try to find someone more experienced with you to show you the ropes and never ask your manager for clarification or support except when absolutely necessary. Instead, rely on your coworkers to train you and try to find some way to make things equitable with them.
Bonus points if you can find what metrics your manager is measured on and work a little to butter their bread. Eventually, you will figure out which areas you can do the bare minimum in and spend the least total amount of energy for the most job security and likelihood of a raise. Do not work yourself to the bone and do not work beyond paid or contract hours.
For instance, I worked in a chain coffee store and found out my manager did not like having to delegate/think about certain cleaning tasks so I would do those really quick before fucking off in the back and that lowered my overall amount of responsibility while also boosting me in my bosses eyes. Of course, if we were really busy I would pull my weight fairly and not throw my coworkers under the bus.
When at work, work hard. But when you get off the clock that is YOUR time - don’t let them monopolise your free time unless you are compensated for it.