Millenni-eyes: Mondays
“I can’t wait until the weekend is over so I can go to work on Monday!” said no one ever.
Why do we dread Mondays? Even if we love our jobs, Monday tasks can be quite overwhelming. The benefit of growing up millennial is that our lives were highly structured and we had much encouragement from parents, school, or extracurriculars (participation trophies for 15 please). Being raised with great amounts of positive reinforcement, millennials appear to have an inflated self-esteem with high expectations of reward for all achievement. Maybe we are exhausted with the structure. Maybe we want the freedom to create our own agendas. Millennials are the Most Entrepreneurial Generation compared to Generation Xers and Baby Boomers. This does not mean that millennials want more leisure, because let’s be honest, entrepreneurship is hard work. However, maybe being raised on the pillows of job security, structure, and positive reinforcement leads to a need to venture out into a world we can call our own. Still, there are many of us who do continue to work for big companies, yet struggle due to lack of support in our way of being.
Hinote and Sundvall (2015) wrote an article entitled: Leading Millenials: An Approach That Works, which put a positive spin on the millennial characteristics that are often seen negatively. For example, previous generations have a traditional view of interacting with those in positions of authority, whereas millennials do not shy away from talking directly to them. With much interaction and practice with social media, millennials may have expectations of immediacy and wonder why senior leaders do not respond right away. Direct forms of communicating are not meant to disrespect leaders; rather, there is a drive for immediate results. Hinote and Sundvall (2015) continued their description of millennials as creative and competent, and this can be utilized in brainstorming with leadership. Another difference between millennials and prior generations are that they need to know why, while those prior just did what was told. With recent employee engagement culture, it is not a bad thing to provide insight into the why of happenings or changes with policies as people would be better able to adapt to change if they understand what is going on. This can accomplish greater work ethic. It appears that communication and engagement are the highlights of millennial characteristics (Hinote & Sundvall, 2015).
Maybe it isn’t just Mondays. A shorter work week/longer weekend seems to produce more effective work-life balance. There are several countries that have Shifted To Four-Day Work Week including Spain, Ireland, Japan, Belgium, just to name a few. We perceive Monday to be stressful because of the long work week ahead. If we can reduce this, then perhaps we would perceive the work to be less daunting, thus allowing more comfortability with productivity.
Monday blues can lead to overwhelming emotions at times. If you feel that anxiety is getting in the way of your daily activities, it is best to reach out for professional help. For tips and tricks on reducing anxiety, reach out to therapeutic practices such as GO! Therapeutic Services & Supervision, LLC or The Hardy Clinic, expert therapists help you manage and learn skills to reduce negative thoughts or behaviors.