Bare Minimum Mondays: Ultimate Guide
You found our ultimate guide on bare minimum Mondays.
Bare minimum Mondays are workplace trends where employees do the least possible work on Mondays to avoid burnout during the remaining workdays. Examples of these practices include attending only important meetings, starting Monday with a self-care routine, and taking a break from checking emails. Bare minimum Mondays are similar to “quiet quitting,” where employees do the least work required to stay employed. Also, the practice is often a response to underlying issues like anxiety, depression, or work monotony.
This idea is similar to quiet quitting. Also, the ideas highlight employee retention strategies and causes of employee turnover.
What are bare minimum Mondays?
Bare minimum Mondays refer to a practice where employees simplify their tasks as much as possible on Mondays. Depending on the work nature, the “bare minimum” could be attending only important meetings or taking many breaks during the day. Employees often resort to this practice to beat the “Sunday scaries.” Sunday scaries refer to the negative feelings from thoughts of resuming work routines.
1. Sunday scaries
Many employees experience the Sunday scaries when starting a new week. The Sunday scaries is an expression used to describe a feeling of anxiety, panic, and fear workers feel in anticipation of Mondays. These negative feelings make employees dread Mondays. In a YouGov Poll involving over 4,000 adults in the US, about 58% of the participants claim Monday is their least favorite day.
The worst part is that the negative thoughts associated with Mondays can affect employees’ productivity levels. Individuals who embrace the bare minimum Monday trend see this practice as a remedy for Sunday scaries. The idea is if there is less anxiety about Monday’s task list, then employees can start the new week with enough energy and positivity.
2 . Burnout
Burnout describes a feeling of exhaustion and an inadequate response to work. A leading cause of this condition is overworking. Completing essential tasks can be challenging when employees get physically or emotionally exhausted. An effective way to deal with burnout is to take a break from work or reduce the workload. In one of his writings for Gallup titled Employee Burnout: The Biggest Myth, Ben Wigert noted, “The common wisdom is to recover from burnout by working fewer hours.” Therefore, many employees see the bare minimum Monday trend as a way of dealing with burnout without entirely disappearing from work.
Here are work burnout signs to look for in your employees.
3. Mental health issues
Mental health issues, like depression, panic attacks, or PTSD, can significantly affect employees’ responses to work. For many folks, bare minimum Mondays become a coping mechanism to deal with mental health issues while working. Although bare minimum Mondays might not improve the condition, the practice can at least prevent workers’ mental health from worsening.
In addition, anticipating Monday’s workload can cause employees to panic and become stressed. Stress can, in turn, worsen an existing mental health condition. Therefore, many individuals embrace the bare minimum Monday trend to reduce stress and preserve their mental well-being.
4. Decreased productivity
Starting Mondays with an unrealistic task list can make employees less productive over the week. However, employees who work at a realistic speed will likely produce higher quality work and experience burnout less often. Therefore, workers use the bare minimum Monday trend to train themselves to start work slowly, gradually increasing their momentum for the rest of the week.
You can check out this guideline for boosting employee productivity.
5. Work pressure
Having a lot of pressure from work, either from scary deadlines or an overly aggressive leader, can affect employee behavior. The worst part is that such pressure demotivates rather than encourages employees. Also, the pressure continually builds up for employees who fail to meet the deadlines. In addition to anxiety, employees can start feeling inadequate and even depressed.
Although not a sustainable solution, workers can use bare minimum Mondays to focus on self-care and ignore any work pressure.
6. Work-life imbalance
A notable reason for the bare minimum Monday culture is to create a work-life balance. Many trend followers see the practice as an opportunity to prioritize yourself as a human over a worker. Therefore, employees engage in various self-care activities before or after doing only the minimum tasks required for the day. These activities include reading a book, napping, or doing yoga.
The idea is that practicing self-care on Mondays can help employees build confidence in themselves and their abilities to get by the week. Also, engaging in creative activities can make employees feel productive and boost their incentive to work.
You can check out these tips for improving work-life balance.
What do workers do on bare minimum Mondays?
Workers often do activities that make them feel good, from meditation to workouts. Many workers see bare minimum Mondays as an opportunity to put themselves first as human beings over employees. During an interview with Insider, Mayes described her self-care practice on bare minimum Mondays: “I’ll do some reading, some journaling, maybe some stuff around the house. It’s two hours of no technology—no checking email—just doing whatever I need to do to feel good starting my day.”