Vivencias en torno al trabajo, cansancio, angustia y sentido de vida en personal de mantenimiento de la Universidad Metropolitana: el Sísifo contemporáneo

Alexai Aché; Johnny Gavloski Epelboin; Alfredo Rodríguez Iranzo

doi:10.58479/cu.2026.205

Authors

Alexai Aché Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas (Venezuela)
Johnny Gavloski Epelboin Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas (Venezuela)
Alfredo Rodríguez Iranzo Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas (Venezuela)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58479/cu.2026.205

Keywords:

family, maintenance staff, fatigue, work

Abstract

Work constitutes a multifactorial phenomenon that significantly influences people’s lives. In a contemporary context marked by dynamics of hyperproduction and constant demands, individuals seek to give meaning to their work activity, even when experiences such as anguish and fatigue affect their relationship with everyday life. Within this framework, occupational burnout syndrome has been conceptualized as a response to the effects of chronic work-related stress, manifested in physical and emotional exhaustion, detachment from work, and reduced professional efficacy. The present study aimed to explore experiences related to work, fatigue, anguish, and meaning in life among maintenance staff at Universidad Metropolitana. From a qualitative approach with a hermeneutic orientation, the research sought to characterize the psychosocial and intrapsychic factors that influence the experience of fatigue and the construction of meaning in the participants’ working lives. The study was conducted using a non-probabilistic sample and semi-structured interviews that made it possible to explore workers’ narratives and perceptions regarding their everyday experiences. The results show that the economic dimension constitutes a central element in the participants’ lives, as well as the role of the family, which emerges as the main motivation and source of meaning for both work and life itself. Anguish, in turn, appears as an experience that is difficult to verbalize and is often associated with the responsibility of providing for the household; it is addressed through practices of spirituality and mechanisms of emotional self-regulation. Fatigue manifests primarily through physical pain and bodily exhaustion and is confronted through strategies such as the normalization of discomfort, denial, and self-medication. Overall, the findings make it possible to understand how work becomes a space where economic, emotional, and existential dimensions intersect, configuring an experience that symbolically evokes the figure of the “contemporary Sisyphus,” in which everyday effort is linked to the search for meaning and to perseverance in the face of adverse conditions.

Author Biographies

Johnny Gavloski Epelboin, Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas (Venezuela)

Johnny Gavloski Epelboin (Caracas, Venezuela, January 26, 1960) is a Venezuelan psychoanalyst, clinical psychologist, university professor, and playwright, recognized for his work at the intersection of psychoanalysis, art, and theater. He currently serves as a professor in the Department of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences at the Metropolitan University in Caracas, where he teaches courses related to culture, critical thinking, and the psychoanalytic analysis of cultural phenomena. His academic training began in psychology at the Andrés Bello Catholic University, after which he developed a career linked to the study and dissemination of psychoanalysis. He participated in the founding of the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, where he worked on the editing of the institution’s specialized journal and interviewed prominent figures in the field such as Otto Kernberg. Throughout his career, he has also specialized in the treatment of substance dependence and therapies for panic attacks. At the same time, he developed an intense artistic career. He studied theater directing at the Juana Sujo School and dramaturgy with renowned Latin American masters. His dramatic works include titles such as Los puentes rotos, Más allá de la vida, and La última sesión, plays that explore psychological, existential, and social themes. He has also worked as a screenwriter in film; his work on the movie Luna Llena received the Audience Award for Best Screenplay at the San Remo Festival (Italy) in 1992.

Gavloski has also produced a significant body of editorial work in the fields of psychoanalysis and art, with books such as Sublimaciones, psicoanálisis y arte, Cuerpo de ámbar, and Pollock desnudo… con cuchillo. His intellectual work often focuses on the relationships between subjectivity, artistic creativity, and unconscious processes, integrating clinical reflection with cultural analysis. Throughout his career he has received various recognitions, including the Caracas Municipal Theater Award (1989) for Los puentes rotos and the Actors of the World Award in London (2008) as playwright for La última sesión. In addition to his university activities, he leads cultural dissemination projects and lectures on cinema, television series, and art from a psychoanalytic perspective. Johnny Gavloski Epelboin is a distinctive figure within the Venezuelan academic and cultural sphere, whose career combines university teaching, clinical practice, dramaturgy, and aesthetic reflection, with a particular interest in understanding how art and culture express the deep dynamics of psychic life.

Alfredo Rodríguez Iranzo , Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas (Venezuela)

Alfredo Rodríguez Iranzo is a university professor, social communicator, researcher, and academic editor affiliated with the Faculty of Humanities at the Metropolitan University in Caracas. Throughout his career, he has combined teaching, journalism, and editorial production, developing a distinguished body of work in the fields of communication, culture, and the humanities. As a social communicator, he worked for several years as a journalist and publicist in Venezuelan print media, an activity he carried out alongside his career as a university professor, particularly in areas related to graphic arts, communication, and culture. In the academic sphere, he has participated in university editorial projects and scholarly publications, collaborating as both author and editor in works related to education, communication, and contemporary cultural reflection. Among his contributions is his participation in studies on distance education and educational transformation, as well as articles published in academic journals of the Metropolitan University. His work is characterized by a humanistic perspective on communication and educational processes, promoting critical analysis of the media, culture, and the transformations occurring in teaching and learning models in contemporary society.