Try contracting / consulting. I feel like contracting has a different set of expectations, there's more of an expectation that contractors kind of do their own

Try contracting / consulting. I feel like contracting has a different set of expectations, there's more of an expectation that contractors kind of do their own thing. There's also an expectation that contractors are a bit flaky, so a reliable contractor at 80% time is still a solid asset, whereas an employee at 80% time is communicating "I'm not 100% invested". I guess the difference is that with contractors the relationship is clearly understood by both sides to be "we're exchanging money for services" whereas employees are expected to be "resources that we rent". You don't expect your apartment to disappear 80% of the time, but in exchange there's a soft guarantee that the rent is sort of semi-permanent. (Hence why everyone is so upset about layoffs, it reveals that the deal is actually "I expect you to be there 100% of the time, and I'm going to pretend that this is permanent, but I may terminate the deal at any time". The contractor approach is just clearer for everyone.)