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Google, the most progressive and fastest-growing company in the world, insists that its top people spend 20% of their time on personal projects unrelated to their main work. Google doesn't care much if the projects actually result in anything, although Google News grew out of that approach.
There are several reasons for it. One is that employment is dehumanizing if it's treated like indentured servitude during the "work hours". The 20% allows people to work on what they love, not what their employers love. It also allows Googlers to say no to their managers on any particular day, for no particular reason.
As an employee you have less and less impact on your own life because jobs require you to be who you're not unless you're very lucky.
In student work you are spending time improving yourself. In real world work, you are spending your time improving your employer... maybe. And you yourself, and your work, may be flushed down the drain at any moment, for almost any reason, logical or not. Usually political.
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