Aspire to the be Least
Expecting a job focused on productive work is unrealistic outside early startups; elsewhere the metrics are meetings, KPIs and camaraderie. Forced fun doesn't build real bonds, shared adversity does. So either aspire to be unimportant, or be expensive enough to justify it.
It may sound absurd, but expecting to find a job where the emphasis is on productive work, is generally unrealistic and will even, possibly, be perceived as hostile and anti-social. The only generally safe exception is early stage startups. They are often in a do-or-die place where accelerating time-to-market is the difference between survival and extinction. Formalities and legalities be damned.
If not productive work, then what is the typical focus? Camaraderie, relationships, team building, corporate value reinforcement, metrics and KPIs, productivity analogs, and so on. These are the luxuries of companies that no longer must focus on survival.
This is in no way a joke. I've received negative feedback from a direct manager because, "you don't talk enough in meetings." It was an eye-opening moment for me. I had wondered why others would either ask obvious questions or contribute reams of pointless dialog. They understood the metrics on which they were being graded, and they played to those metrics. My life would be easier if I had that mentality.
