At the radio station, my most stressful day was Thursday with 2 politician interviews despite the fact I worked as a radio host and not as a journalist (seemed impossible to recruit one). A lot of extra unpaid hours would leave me bone tired on Fridays, but I plugged away on weekends anyway.
My Mondays are always full. Seems the weekends can also be stressful for my clients. I take Friday evening and Saturday afternoon (I work in the a.m.) as my weekend and so all of my chores are on Sunday, that prepares me for Monday. I’m also lucky that I have Thursdays off too, so my week is broken up into 3 days, then 1.5 days.
My most stressful days are Monday and Friday. Monday for the reasons Marissa Jo cited, and Friday because I want to get everything done so as not to leave any tasks to run over into Monday, making Monday that much worse. It tends to have a snowball effect that I can never quite get out from under, and I end up working several hours every weekend to try and keep it at bay. The burnout is very real because of it. I'm a freelance writer, so this is entirely my own doing (filling my schedule to the brim with projects, which leaves very little room for error if the words don't come easily or I hit a delay for any reason). It's a good problem to have (too much work) so I'm not complaining exactly. Just wish I knew how to manage it better.
I'm a weirdo. I look forward to Mondays, because I love what I do. That's the ticket. If you create a warm, humane workplace where people feel valued and respected, they are much less likely to dread being there. If they do, something is wrong. Try to figure out what that is and try to address it. No one should be miserable at work. Time off is essential. People work better when they take breaks. And by the way, you are never accountable to no one. Presumably you have customers or someone you have to send something to, or clients. You are accountable to them.
On working remotely. My clients tell me that they all wanted to get back to the workplace because they missed the camaraderie of their peers. They were also beginning to hate their house because of the software that followed their keystrokes kept them as “prisoners” to their computer.
my comment is regarding 7 Other Things, "American singles would be flat out unwilling to date someone with different political views"... imo, how very sad, but definitely reflects on how closed-minded people seem to be & unable to have respectful conversations. Plus I guess they haven't heard of Mary Matalin & James Carville...
Though I do recall my mom telling me, “Don’t work too hard. You get no thanks for it.”
I will revise that a little. Don’t work too hard. You get little thanks for it.
Sadly, working hard has led me to be taken advantage of throughout my career. If I am conscious of this, I can take steps to stop it from happening. Forever a work in progress.
I recall working a scheduled job (40-60 hours/week) and coming back to work on Monday all I could see was that it seemed like an eternity until the next day off. Then I was working a job with no defined schedule, similar to being on call, and there were no "Mondays" and I could take off any day I wanted to. I have no doubt that a laid back Monday will lead to a more laid back Tuesday and on and on until Friday comes with 3 days of work to get done in one day.
I have what I call Lazy Sunday’s every once in a while, as I have my own business and work had and long hours most days. Every so often I am just tired. Which isn’t my norm. When that happens I give myself permission to do a little work while sitting. I may binge watch a series or even do marketing work. But it is a slow pace. What I complete in that day I might have done in an hour normally.
Hey Bill - there are many differences between living and working in the US and the experience in Australia (where I spent the first 20 years of my career). I've been here for 12. One thing I really noticed on a Sunday was that in Australia we are just as likely to enjoy a Sunday like we would a Saturday - if a bbq turned into a big night with friends, or the other two nights of the weekend were full and you wanted to catch up with friends for lunch or dinner - so be it and great! We did not worry about Monday. Until Monday. I enjoy my morning Understandably a great deal, but I would have no issue with you moving to a 4 day week and enjoying your family and friends all weekend. I'd be surprised if the majority of your readers would either.
I love the idea of Bare Minimum Mondays- although I too am a weirdo and look forward to Mondays, as at least one other person has said. I love the feeling of a fresh start. It’s the end of the week that drags for me. Perhaps the side effects of being self employed.
I do find the whole psychological paradigm of going into Mondays fascinating, though- and I got the Sunday scaries much worse in college. That’s why I send out a Sunday newsletter with one thought for the week or soothing tip or something that feels poignant . I call it a Sunday survival guide- just figured I can’t be the only one who’s ever experienced the Sunday scaries .
A business colleague once told me that he has no plans for Mondays, he uses Mondays for ‘putting out fires’ that developed over the weekend. (Customer related) If no fires present themselves, he can get ahead on the Tuesday items on his list.
"A majority of American singles would be flat out unwilling to date someone with different political views." What happened to inclusion and debating different views? Where does it end? Not dating someone who supports a rival team, school?
The concept of recent burnout, on a Monday or any other day, has been thrown around quite a bit, but I'm not sure it's understood what people are being burned out from. I don't think it's work, but that's what's surfacing because it's where we spend most of our time. People are burned out on the out of their control B.S. that infiltrates their lives, most notably government, politics and social media. Nobody can turn it off anymore, so they're giving up the one thing most in their control, which is their intensity at work.
It appears to me that if you Publish on Monday, you work Sunday, If you Publish on Friday you only work Thursday...... So your weekend is Friday and Saturday. Remember its your article, you select when to publish. I have no sympathy for you....
At the radio station, my most stressful day was Thursday with 2 politician interviews despite the fact I worked as a radio host and not as a journalist (seemed impossible to recruit one). A lot of extra unpaid hours would leave me bone tired on Fridays, but I plugged away on weekends anyway.
My Mondays are always full. Seems the weekends can also be stressful for my clients. I take Friday evening and Saturday afternoon (I work in the a.m.) as my weekend and so all of my chores are on Sunday, that prepares me for Monday. I’m also lucky that I have Thursdays off too, so my week is broken up into 3 days, then 1.5 days.
My most stressful days are Monday and Friday. Monday for the reasons Marissa Jo cited, and Friday because I want to get everything done so as not to leave any tasks to run over into Monday, making Monday that much worse. It tends to have a snowball effect that I can never quite get out from under, and I end up working several hours every weekend to try and keep it at bay. The burnout is very real because of it. I'm a freelance writer, so this is entirely my own doing (filling my schedule to the brim with projects, which leaves very little room for error if the words don't come easily or I hit a delay for any reason). It's a good problem to have (too much work) so I'm not complaining exactly. Just wish I knew how to manage it better.
I'm a weirdo. I look forward to Mondays, because I love what I do. That's the ticket. If you create a warm, humane workplace where people feel valued and respected, they are much less likely to dread being there. If they do, something is wrong. Try to figure out what that is and try to address it. No one should be miserable at work. Time off is essential. People work better when they take breaks. And by the way, you are never accountable to no one. Presumably you have customers or someone you have to send something to, or clients. You are accountable to them.
On working remotely. My clients tell me that they all wanted to get back to the workplace because they missed the camaraderie of their peers. They were also beginning to hate their house because of the software that followed their keystrokes kept them as “prisoners” to their computer.
my comment is regarding 7 Other Things, "American singles would be flat out unwilling to date someone with different political views"... imo, how very sad, but definitely reflects on how closed-minded people seem to be & unable to have respectful conversations. Plus I guess they haven't heard of Mary Matalin & James Carville...
Are you a bare minimum Mondayer?
Me? Of course not.
Though I do recall my mom telling me, “Don’t work too hard. You get no thanks for it.”
I will revise that a little. Don’t work too hard. You get little thanks for it.
Sadly, working hard has led me to be taken advantage of throughout my career. If I am conscious of this, I can take steps to stop it from happening. Forever a work in progress.
I recall working a scheduled job (40-60 hours/week) and coming back to work on Monday all I could see was that it seemed like an eternity until the next day off. Then I was working a job with no defined schedule, similar to being on call, and there were no "Mondays" and I could take off any day I wanted to. I have no doubt that a laid back Monday will lead to a more laid back Tuesday and on and on until Friday comes with 3 days of work to get done in one day.
I have what I call Lazy Sunday’s every once in a while, as I have my own business and work had and long hours most days. Every so often I am just tired. Which isn’t my norm. When that happens I give myself permission to do a little work while sitting. I may binge watch a series or even do marketing work. But it is a slow pace. What I complete in that day I might have done in an hour normally.
Hey Bill - there are many differences between living and working in the US and the experience in Australia (where I spent the first 20 years of my career). I've been here for 12. One thing I really noticed on a Sunday was that in Australia we are just as likely to enjoy a Sunday like we would a Saturday - if a bbq turned into a big night with friends, or the other two nights of the weekend were full and you wanted to catch up with friends for lunch or dinner - so be it and great! We did not worry about Monday. Until Monday. I enjoy my morning Understandably a great deal, but I would have no issue with you moving to a 4 day week and enjoying your family and friends all weekend. I'd be surprised if the majority of your readers would either.
I love the idea of Bare Minimum Mondays- although I too am a weirdo and look forward to Mondays, as at least one other person has said. I love the feeling of a fresh start. It’s the end of the week that drags for me. Perhaps the side effects of being self employed.
I do find the whole psychological paradigm of going into Mondays fascinating, though- and I got the Sunday scaries much worse in college. That’s why I send out a Sunday newsletter with one thought for the week or soothing tip or something that feels poignant . I call it a Sunday survival guide- just figured I can’t be the only one who’s ever experienced the Sunday scaries .
Oh gosh....better have BMMs than 4day weeks to appease the younger generations.
A business colleague once told me that he has no plans for Mondays, he uses Mondays for ‘putting out fires’ that developed over the weekend. (Customer related) If no fires present themselves, he can get ahead on the Tuesday items on his list.
"A majority of American singles would be flat out unwilling to date someone with different political views." What happened to inclusion and debating different views? Where does it end? Not dating someone who supports a rival team, school?
The concept of recent burnout, on a Monday or any other day, has been thrown around quite a bit, but I'm not sure it's understood what people are being burned out from. I don't think it's work, but that's what's surfacing because it's where we spend most of our time. People are burned out on the out of their control B.S. that infiltrates their lives, most notably government, politics and social media. Nobody can turn it off anymore, so they're giving up the one thing most in their control, which is their intensity at work.
It appears to me that if you Publish on Monday, you work Sunday, If you Publish on Friday you only work Thursday...... So your weekend is Friday and Saturday. Remember its your article, you select when to publish. I have no sympathy for you....