Abstract
Patient and work families' conformity to conventional, but absurd ways of behaving can be maddening to their individual members. Members' ties to these same cultural (familiallorganizational) traditions compound the difficulties via the demand that rational solutions be applied to irrational problems. Despite our very best efforts, these solutions make matters worse. Family therapists' training in systemic absurdity makes them logical candidates to devise strategies for the workplace which would allow employees to break out of their cultural binds and transcend the everyday absurdity of relational living.