by Rev. David Grousnick

According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus was once a cruel King of Corinth. And when he died, he was eternally condemned to push a giant boulder to the top of a steep hill. The closer he got to the top, the steeper the hill became, and the harder it was to push the boulder.

Every time he had almost gotten the boulder to the top of the hill, he would lose control of it. It would roll over him and down to the bottom of the hill, where he would have to start all over again.

On this Labor Day weekend I hope that none of you are feeling like Sisyphus. I hope that you don’t wake up every morning feeling like you have to push a giant boulder up a hill. Some people do.

Like the teacher who was complaining about her job. She told about her principal who was lecturing the faculty quite unmercifully.

One by one, he presented them with a painful list of all their failures, flaws and shortcomings. He rebuked them for over an hour for all the mistakes they had made over the year.

Then he announced that the science club was sponsoring a blood drive and that he would donate the first pint of blood. An anxious voice piped up from the rear of the room and asked, “But whose blood?”

I hope your work environment is a little better than that. At least I hope your boss is a little more sympathetic.

Eiton Mayo, a professor at Harvard, once did a five-year study at the Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Chicago to find out what effect fatigue and monotony had on productivity. He stumbled onto a motivation principle that revolutionized the theory and practice of management.

Mayo took five workers off the assembly line and put them under the watchful eye of a friendly supervisor. Then he started to make frequent changes in their work conditions. But he always discussed the changes in advance.

He changed their work hours, number of breaks, and lunch times. Occasionally, he would switch back to the original, more difficult working conditions. To his surprise, changing back to the tougher conditions didn’t adversely affect production. Instead, it kept going up.

The professor realized that by singling out certain workers, he raised their self-esteem. They developed a friendly relationship with the supervisor and soon began to feel more like part of a team. Exercising a freedom they never had before, the workers talked, joked, and began meeting socially after work. Mayo and the supervisor had their cooperation and loyalty. That explained why production levels rose even when rest breaks were taken away.

The part of the study dwelling on positive effects of benign supervision and the effort to make workers feel like they’re part of a team became known as the Hawthorne Effect. We still see this used in management today.

There is, I think it is true to say, something a little bit depressing about Labor Day weekend. For Labor Day weekend signals the psychological end, at least, to summer with its periods of refreshment, and the start again, for many of us, of the more hectic rhythm of life and work at school, in college, at office or, in home.

Let me ask you: How is your work? Are you giving of yourself at work? Is work a place where you sacrifice for a cause?

I find it helpful to remember the story of the little girl who, in the process of growing up, discovered that more than anything else she wanted to be able to mow the lawn. But each season she was told that she was too young.

The great day came, however, when her parents decided that, at last, she was old enough to do the task.

She did it with surprising skill and great delight, and having finished admiring her work, she began to cast long, envious glances across the fence at the neighbor’s lawn, which also needed cutting.

The neighbor, seeing her interest, said, “Sally, would you like to cut my lawn?” And the little girl enthusiastically said ‘yes.’

“Well, let’s see…how about $3.00?” said the neighbor. The little girl’s face fell, and she turned away, shaking her head. “What’s the matter?” asked the neighbor. “I only have $2.00,” said the little girl.

May God bless all those who labor. I pray you enjoy a great and restful Labor Day weekend!!

David Grousnick, is the Pastor at the First Christian Church in Artesia.