I think, as many things are, this level of "work" is cyclical.
I don't believe Dostoyevsky was being "sarcastic". I believe he was writing allegorically, using "fiction" as the device to portray the current and perceived future of "work" and the burden it places upon those not born unto "nobility", as he saw it.
For example, in the current fiat based, central bank run world, we can see this on the rise even in America where many of us refer to work as "wage-slavery" or "debt-slavery".
This is what happens when the elite are allowed to control the money supply with no ties to a "hard" backing to something with intrinsic value.
Since "money" is only a medium of exchange: one cannot eat it. "Money" is simply a way to offer a receipt of ones "time" traded via "work"... when the elite can manipulate the supply the "money" at will (fiat), they can manipulate the value of said "money" by diluting it and thus devaluing our "time" traded for said money.
By doing this, they control and devalue our lives, as we trade our "time" for "money" and they enjoy the benefits of it, leeching it from all of us, a grain of sand at a time - like the ocean erodes the beach.
Until one day, when the beach is nearly gone and the ocean has robbed it of all it's sand... a tidal wave surges forth and the sand is restored.