--- title: Nolan's ‘Odyssey’ is a Hit. Kafka's ‘Poseidon’ is the Rest of Us at Work description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/partner-content/charter/nolan-s-odyssey-is-a-hit-kafka-s-poseidon-is-the-rest-of-us-at-work/ author: Michelle Peng article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-08-04T10:30:00.405Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-03T22:36:43.051Z og:title: Nolan's ‘Odyssey’ is a Hit. Kafka's ‘Poseidon’ is the Rest of Us at Work og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. 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Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b34ad0fb0ee04d7/6a7117c4f0972afc8db99a1a/charter-odyssey.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- The information presented here is created by Charter, independently from the TIME editorial staff.  Time charter * [Wellbeing](/partner-content/charter/tag/wellbeing/) ## Wellbeing # Nolan's ‘Odyssey’ is a Hit. Kafka's ‘Poseidon’ is the Rest of Us at Work  by [Michelle Peng](https://time.com/author/michelle-peng/) Aug 4, 2026 10:30 AM UTC  Illustration by Charter · Photo by Getty/Victoria Gnatiuk  by [Michelle Peng](https://time.com/author/michelle-peng/) Aug 4, 2026 10:30 AM UTC In July, I escaped an unusually muggy Los Angeles evening to spend three hours in a blissfully cold theater watching a 30-foot tall Matt Damon play Odysseus, the legendary ancient Greek hero trying to make his way home while an unseen but all-powerful Poseidon tries to drown him and his crew. I wasn’t alone. The film already hit [$911 million worldwide in box-office sales this past weekend](https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/the-odyssey-spiderman-biggest-box-office-weekend-history-1236825132/), and there have been no shortage of takes on the movie’s [workplace lessons](https://www.businessinsider.com/odyssey-christopher-nolan-leadership-teamwork-hard-work-ethic-lessons-2026-7) for [leaders](https://www.forbes.com/sites/drsamanthamadhosingh/2026/07/26/3-key-lessons-for-leaders-in-christopher-nolans-movie-the-odyssey/) and [founders](https://www.inc.com/stephanie-davis/christopher-nolan-the-odyssey-movie-leadership-manual-startup-founders/91375857). But the version of Poseidon currently stuck in my mind isn’t Nolan’s. It’s one that appears in an obscure 1936 Franz Kafka [story](https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/04/12/and-other-creatures/) depicting Poseidon not as the trident-bearing god of the sea, but as an overworked and disaffected office bureaucrat. “Poseidon,” Kafka’s character sketch, is a sparse piece of writing—one [2017 translation](https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/04/12/and-other-creatures/) clocks in at just 410 words—and it opens with the god of the ocean sitting at a desk, working on the tedious, monotonous calculations that comprise his job ruling the seven seas. Like many knowledge workers today, he’s unhappy in his role. “He only did it because it was his to do,” Kafka writes. And like today’s workers staring down a sluggish job market, he feels stuck with his current gig. After all, “\[h\]e had been the god of the seas from the beginning of time, and would have to remain such.” The very idea of a job in a different department “was enough to turn his stomach,” and “his divine breath became restless, his bronze thorax quaked.” The most depressing thing about Kafka’s Poseidon is how his role is stripped of all the grandeur, meaning, and power you might associate with ruling the seas, [wine-dark](https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/20/science/homer-s-sea-wine-dark.html) or otherwise. Stuck at his desk, Poseidon sees the ocean only in passing, “and he had never sailed them as such,” writes Kafka. “\[H\]e was waiting for the world to end first, because there was bound to be a quiet moment just before the end.” Sign up for Charter's newsletter to get the handbook for the future of work delivered to your inbox. Email Address You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our [Terms of Service](https://www.charterworks.com/terms-of-service/) and [Privacy Policy](https://www.charterworks.com/privacy-policy/). While it may seem strange to compare the emotional state of an [earth-shaking](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440399904314) sea god from a 90-year-old story to the plight of workers today, bear with me. Kafka’s Poseidon, closer to the world of “Office Space” than “Clash of the Titans,” turns out to be a surprisingly relatable case study. What Poseidon is experiencing is not quite burnout, says [Laurie Santos](https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-santos), a psychology professor at Yale and host of [The Happiness Lab](https://www.drlauriesantos.com/happiness-lab-with-dr-laurie-santos-podcast). He’s clearly unhappy, but his symptoms don’t quite amount to burnout’s clinical definition, which includes three parts: personal exhaustion; personal ineffectiveness; and depersonalization, or a pervasive feeling of cynicism. Instead, “\[Kafka’s\] Poseidon more fits the definition of what might be called [languishing](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/well/mind/covid-mental-health-languishing.html),” Santos says. “you're not depressed. You're not burned out. You're just kind of like ‘meh’ about everything.” Many workers today—in decidedly less epic circumstances—can relate, increasingly taking [mental health leaves](https://theworkforward.substack.com/p/getting-mad-at-the-smoke-alarm), saying their workplaces have become [less joyful](https://www.wsj.com/business/how-working-in-america-became-so-joyless-a1976fd2), reporting [confidence](https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/glassdoor-employee-confidence-index-july-2026/) in their employers at new record lows. For anyone languishing in a career odyssey that feels more Kafkaesque than epic cinematic adventure, here’s our advice: **Savor the delights.** One antidote to languishing is to find—and savor—delight, says Santos. Over time, we all become accustomed to the rhythms of our life through a cognitive bias called hedonic adaptation. That means all the cool projects and perks that may have attracted us to our job in the first place become mundane over time. Savoring, explains Santos, is the act of retraining your attention on all that cool stuff. Challenge yourself to name two things you like about your job, no matter how small. For Poseidon, it might be watching the waves or remembering there are dolphins doing flips under the surface. For an office worker, it might be taking coffee breaks with a work bestie or cracking open a free seltzer water in the breakroom. “They’re tiny things, but when you take time to savor them and notice them, it pops them back out again,” says Santos. All of a sudden, the little joys that disappeared over time become salient again, cutting through our boredom and giving us a little boost to our mood. These delights can be found on the job, or workers can cultivate them outside of work. **Help employees craft more meaningful jobs.** Managers can combat languishing by helping workers craft roles that let them use their strengths or express their values at work. Job crafting is possible in all kinds of roles, says Santos, citing a [2001 study](https://positiveorgs.bus.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/Crafting-a-Job%5FRevisioning-Employees.pdf) that showed how hospital janitorial staff made their roles more meaningful through small actions, from rearranging decorations in a patient’s room to offering tissues to a crying family member. Helping workers identify meaningful tasks can also fight boredom, which often becomes the first step toward languishing. One [2024 research study](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2024-46936-001) found workers who have to do a boring task often see their engagement, attention, and performance fall on subsequent tasks. That spillover disappeared, however, when workers chased the boring assignment with one that felt meaningful, helping them have an impact on others or connect with colleagues. “These tasks were really reorienting. They were replenishing. As a result, it broke that path between the suppression of boredom and the desire to mind wander,” Shimul Melwani, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, previously [told](https://www.charterworks.com/boredom-shimul-melwani-qa/) Charter. She recommended managers build conversations about job crafting into regular one-on-one check-ins. Rather than just talking about project updates, ask “What is draining you right now? What is energizing you right now?” and then brainstorm ways to maximize the more meaningful tasks. **Invest in time affluence and real breaks.** Sitting at his desk, waiting for the world to end so he can take a break, Kafka’s Poseidon is likely feeling “time poor,” the sense that you don’t have enough time for all the things you want or need to do, says Santos. “When we feel ‘time poor,’ it makes us do less,” Cassie Holmes, a professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management and author of [_Happier Hour_](https://www.charterworks.com/happier-hour-cassie-holmes/),previously [told](https://www.charterworks.com/time-poor-what-to-do-cassie-holmes/) Charter. Not only does time poverty erode life satisfaction and happiness; research reveals it’s also associated with [negative health effects](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/197528), [decreased confidence](https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000391), and a [decreased willingness to help others](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797612442551). Holmes shared a few [suggestions](https://www.charterworks.com/happiness-at-work-cassie-holmes-ucla/) to build your sense of time affluence, including investing in meaningful relationships, building purpose into work, and exercising autonomy over how you spend your time. Finally, consider taking a break—now, not when the world ends. “Even if you can’t take a vacation now, plan it for a year from now,” says Santos. We start feeling the benefits of vacation once we decide to take one, not just during and after, she says. Perhaps even the act of penciling in a cruise might make Kafka’s sea god, like you, feel a bit better. **For more on building breaks big and small into your life, read our** [**Q&A with Manoush Zomorodi**](https://www.charterworks.com/charter-how-to-combat-the-physical-toll-of-desk-work/) **on making the workday more sustainable, our** [**Q&A with DJ Didonna**](https://www.charterworks.com/dj-didonna-sabbaticals/) **on sabbaticals, and our** [**guide to making summer PTO**](https://www.charterworks.com/what-workers-need-to-actually-take-a-break-this-summer/) **as accessible and restorative as possible.** --- ## Read more from Charter [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/) [Open article: Why Knowledge Workers Should Treat Themselves Like ‘Information Athletes’](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/why-knowledge-workers-should-treat-themselves-like-information-athletes-/)  ### Why Knowledge Workers Should Treat Themselves Like ‘Information Athletes’ [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/why-knowledge-workers-should-treat-themselves-like-information-athletes-/) [Open article: How Movement Breaks Impact Your Workday](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7305666/how-movement-breaks-impact-your-workday/)  ### How Movement Breaks Impact Your Workday [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7305666/how-movement-breaks-impact-your-workday/) [Open article: Three Lessons from Five Years of Flexible Work](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7270372/three-lessons-from-five-years-of-flexible-work/)  ### Three Lessons from Five Years of Flexible Work [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7270372/three-lessons-from-five-years-of-flexible-work/) --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/nolan-s-odyssey-is-a-hit-kafka-s-poseidon-is-the-rest-of-us-at-work/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/nolan-s-odyssey-is-a-hit-kafka-s-poseidon-is-the-rest-of-us-at-work/"},"headline":"Nolan's ‘Odyssey’ is a Hit. 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