One for the Hill—The 90-Hour Work Week Dilemma
Biswajit Bhattacharya, a writer abbatoir and ping ponger, who finds solace in theatres, takes a swipe at the ‘hottake’ by an eminent industrialist. In his own cryptic words:
Let me paraphrase a line from a popular Kendrick Lamar rap:
Bing-bop-boom-boom-boom-bop-bam
The type of shift I’m on, you wouldn’t understand
Wyrd Numbers: 70-90-100 hours of work, what’s this new SI unit of productivity? I knew success never came within the clutches of 9-5, but this seems beyond the ambit of a hustle mindset. Even motivational quotes from Google can’t rescue.
What’s interesting though are the addendums that come with it like ‘hustle harder’, ‘nation’s development’, ‘working on Sundays’, ‘changing the world’, yada yada. Amongst these emerged an emerald of a hottake by an eminent industrialist saying, “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife?”
Bruh! 10/10 ragebait.
It got me thinking though, about an absurdist’s magnum opus and how they don’t actually hate you when they see you rolling.
Here’s a rant:
Hades punished Sisyphus to keep the boulder rolling up the slopes of Tartarus for all eternity. Contextually speaking, going uphill has always been a beacon of ascent, of success. But capitalistic fever dreams have grossly overlooked scientific reasoning.
If I, Sisyphus, must roll upwards (and onwards), what kind of footwear do I have? What breakfast did I eat this morning? Why does the boulder feel heavier today? What training have I acquired to roll it better (and how much do the modules cost)? My clothes reek of perspiration, a mix of change and cleansing. Did I mention footwear? Yes, I can’t afford new ones on this pay. The weather has made the terrain even more cumbersome. Do stones rolling upwards gather moss?
ALSO READ: ‘90-Hour Week? Go Get A Life, We Aren’t Robots’
But beyond the confines of questioning overwork, misogyny, ethics of capitalism, and work-life balance, I do feel like it’s wrong to keep going while letting myself wither in this piecemeal fashion. I do have well-defined KPIs (performance indicators) to prove my worth; I do have the temerity to point out this fatigued routine; I know my L&D is constant; I know when to stop.
I can simply let the boulder avalanche down.
Perhaps the modern Sisyphus can rise to be the modern Prometheus.
These are just a teaspoon of the questions and ramblings I indulge in on Sundays, staring at the wall—since my schedule is so abjectly preoccupied with the aforesaid notions that finding a spouse to stare at seems impossible.
But my liege lord, Hades, believes it’s in the nation’s best interests not to look down (upon thee?) and to keep moving upwards and onwards and upwards, because, as he says, “the struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a person’s heart.”
Ergo, one must imagine Sisyphus happy (or so they say).
As told to Mamta Sharma
