The Tuesday Boulder

Monday evening on a bank holiday and the impending sense of gloom is in place. Back to work tomorrow. It’s never easy. I’m here, clacking away on the plastic squares of my keyboard to get an idea out that hit me a little while ago.

I don’t want to get all philosophical on you. But there are times when you read something and think, blimey, that makes sense. Even when it comes from philosophy. Here’s the thing though: I promised myself I wouldn’t write anything else about bank holidays. But I saw this thing and thought, yeah, I need to write about that.

Albert Camus used the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus as a metaphor for the human condition. Zeus condemned poor Sisyphus to an eternity of rolling a massive boulder up a steep hill. Only to watch it roll straight back to the bottom each time he neared the summit. Over and over, forever.

Before you think I’ve completely lost the plot I’d better explain. Let me connect ancient Greek punishment to going back to work on a Tuesday morning, you’ll see what I mean.

Think about what happens at eight o’clock tomorrow. You sit at your desk, fire up the screen, and open an inbox you spent Friday afternoon emptying as fast as you could. It is full again. Fifty unread messages, half of them marked urgent, none of them actually urgent. That is the purest modern manifestation of Sisyphus’s boulder. You push the number down to zero, turn your back, and down it rolls to crush your toes again.

I know that doesn’t apply to every trade. The inbox thing. But our son is an electrician, and even he has to pick up where they finished on Friday. The same awkward cable runs, the same stubborn cavity walls, and the same tea-break moans. For those of us who work in a remote environment? The digital rock is bloody huge.

A lot of modern work is Sisyphus-like. We end up doing things we did last week… because we did them last week.

Meetings. Endless video calls. The calendar fills up with catch-ups where we resolve to hold another catch-up. And when a bank holiday steals Monday from the calendar? The universe doesn’t cancel those Monday calls. Oh no. It rams all four hours of them straight into Tuesday morning. Meaning Tuesday’s meetings shunt into Wednesday. And by Thursday you’re having a stand-up meeting while having your lunch. Can you feel the granite digging into your shoulder yet?

Bank holiday or not, that bloody rock is always waiting at the foot of the slope. When you think about it, we spend half our working lives on loop. I’m a process nerd. That means I’m always looking at the things we do. Trying to spot ways to drop the pointless friction and make the climb easier.

I know folk will say: that’s work, mate. Get on with it. But you have to imagine Sisyphus happy, Camus said. Or at least capable of finding a better angle to push the damn thing.

Right, one thing I don’t mind doing on repeat is making a brew. So, I’m off to boil the kettle. That’ll do for this keyboard-clacking session.