The Myth Of Sisyphus

Thirty-eight percent of Americans report some tension between their work and home lives. Today’s highly publicized work/life balance conflicts are multiple, and their nature differs significantly depending on the jobs individuals have and on their family situations. Tensions between work and family life clearly have implications for the well-being of individuals and their children and ramifications for society in general. Yet because the personal needs, desires, motivations, and economic circumstances of Americans are so varied, there appears to be no single way to resolve these tensions, no universal best practices with regard to work/life balance. For example,

We’ve looked at work from many different views in this class. From the bottom in Mike Roses book, Mind at Work which looks at the, on the jobsite skills and intelligence needed in the work force. Along with the way our society and education play a role in that. And then there was the middle working class view by journalist and author Barbara Ehreinch and her book Nickel and Dimed, which saw a middle class person look at the low wage lifestyle of Americans, and her failed attempt to live off wages. It ended up very one sided and controversial since it was a wealthier person trying to look in on a subject they could never understand. But one thing that I never really felt or saw either one really look at is the connection between work and life balance they only looked at the different aspects of work and those factors. But I feel there was a factor left out and it is life, family, personal aspects.

A healthy work/life balance to me means that I am meeting my goals and fulfilling my commitments to the people in those realms of my life. For example, if I am able to, in the time and resources I am given, be able to spend time with friends while being able to pay my bills while meeting my objectives at work; that to me is a successful balance.

I believe that we can ‘have it all at the same time.’” (Dorment 699). However, the reason why men and women cannot have it all because they have work and life same time. Richard said, “Entirely lost in this debate is the growing strain of work-life balance on men, who today are feeling the competing demands of work and home as much or more than women. And the truth is as shocking as it is obvious:

With everything going on with the upcoming presidential election, the political community has been very prominent in society the past several months. While doing research on myths, I came across The Myth of Sisyphus and immediately made many connections between the two subjects. Both of these topics have a lot to do with manipulation and deception. With politics especially, people today have a lot of opinions on the dynamics of that community. They both deal with continuous repetition and constantly giving your all to make accomplish a task. What is interesting though is exactly to what extent can The Myth of Sisyphus be related to our modern day political community?

Ha! Who would?ve thought that I of all people would be blogging about work life balance. I constantly feel as though I have a million things on my plate and that I?m struggling to keep up. Through my participation in clubs, work, and school, my mind is constantly worrying about something. My go-go-go mentality has been like this for about a year now, and I need a change ASAP. It?s to the point where I?m sacrificing my own mental sanity for my jobs and schoolwork.

Explain (in 1 or 2 paragraphs) why it is important to maintain a work/life balance.

The Myth of Sisyphus tells of a mortal who was punished by the gods to push a rock to the top of a mountain which would then roll back to the bottom where he was to start pushing again. Sisyphus was to continuously repeat this task or all of eternity. Many similarities in philosophies can be seen between this myth and The Stranger, both authored by Albert Camus. In The Stranger, Meursault often noted what interested and disinterested him, similarly, the narrator of the myth mentions that Sisyphus return trip down the mountain peaks his interest. Additionally, Meursault never developed any faith in a higher power which correlates to the narrator of the myth stating, “...there is no higher destiny” (Camus, paragraph 9). Next, Meursault clearly

The bus was silent, no one daring to speak. We had just suffered the first loss in more than 10 years to one of the competing schools to make it to the state tournament for tennis. This bus ride home from the tournament in Green Bay gave me sufficient time to reflect on my matches and on the sport as a whole.

The Myth of Sisyphus caught my attention the moment I saw the word “gods”. I have always loved tales and myths of human who interact with gods. The human within this story was Sisyphus and his interaction with the gods was not so great. I loved how they showed the twisted side of a human’s wrath and greed. He wanted revenge on his wife but when he was shown the world again he didn’t want to leave. I found it interesting that he was punished for his deadly sins by the gods, to constantly roll a stone up a hill just so that it may fall back down and for the process to repeat for eternity.

In his essays in The Myth of Sisyphus, philosopher Albert Camus states that the only "serious" philosophical question is whether or not one should commit suicide.

The purpose of Richard Taylor’s, “The Meaning of Life,” is to portray the life of Sisyphus in Albert Camus’s, “The Myth of Sisyphus,” as a meaningless life, in which Taylor portrays as a “perfect image of meaninglessness.” In Camus’s story, Sisyphus has committed certain crimes that got him into trouble with the gods. Hence, receiving a punishment by being forced to push a rock up a hill. However, to make it even worse, once he reached the top of the hill, the rock would just roll back down to the bottom, therefore having to repeat this labor for eternity. The motivation behind this discipline was to demonstrate the pointlessness of life since there was no want to demonstrate his life will never end. The question of what’s the meaning of life is compelling to think about, but the more time spent doing it the more fascinating it gets. There are ways to avoid having a meaningless life, but Taylor’s theory sticks to either living a happy life or a meaningless life.

A healthy work-life balance has many benefits including better general health for the employees, higher job satisfaction, reduced stress in both the professional and personal life and greater focus on meeting the work objectives.

Albert Camus was a French-Algerian writer, who made an enterprising contribution to a wide range of issues in moral philosophy. Camus was a moralist as well as a political theoretician and stood in high public esteem not only in France but also all over Europe after World War Ⅱ. Albert Camus spent a dismal childhood with poverty and bereavement of his father’s death. In his school years, Camus became an avid reader, developing a lifelong interest in literature as well as profoundly opened his eyes to philosophy. Therefore, Camus principally dealt with philosophy themes in his work. In this short biography of Albert Camus, we will explore his philosophy of absurdism and its effect on Camus’s morality. Besides, the reader will be examining Camus’s influences on existentialism.

·     Balance - "Management's recognition of the importance of personal and family life remains the top driver of employee loyalty. Employees who spend a moderate amount of time each week attending to personal matters while at work have a higher level of commitment to their employer than those who spend no time." (America @ Work 1999," Aon Consulting, Chicago, Illinois; 312.701.4844) Employers who provide a work/life/family balance