There is nuance to the two separate ideas of "doing the bare minimum" and "taking pride in your work". I agree with you that taking pride in your work is import

There is nuance to the two separate ideas of "doing the bare minimum" and "taking pride in your work". I agree with you that taking pride in your work is important; I wish it were more highly valued nowadays, honestly. The flip side is that "taking pride in your work" nearly always results in being taking advantage of from your employer, at least in salaried positions. And if you can spot the social patterns and games played such as valuing employees that work overtime (without pay), on weekends, etc, it is clear that employers love getting more value from employees without compensating them. Work extra hard for 6 months to maybe possibly get a promotion? People are generally waking up to this reality, hence the 'quiet quitting' mindset. One can both take pride in their work, and respect their time by adhering to their employer-employee contract as written. Lastly, in the baker example, they have a direct reason to put in their best effort (assuming the baker owns their bakery): they will gain goodwill and repeat customers if they bake very well. A salaried worker is so far removed from being directly compensated for their work. I predict the situation would be very different if salary work got commission based on sales and overtime pay.