By Andrea Hargraves 
It’s a method created by the content producer after burnout and involves working as little as possible on Mondays. The solution aims to reduce stress and anxiety, but psychology warns that the solution may not work if the source of the problem is not addressed.
This phenomenon was born on social networking sites, but it quickly spread to the labor market. it’s called ‘Minimum MondaysIt is the latest move to appear in the aftermath of “Quiet” or “Take Off Loud”. The concept, which in Portuguese is roughly equivalent to “minimum Mondays”, represents an idea born in 2020 as a result of “burnout”.
Because it is a relatively recent idea, recruiters admit that it is difficult to assess its impact on workers and the workplace. From a mental health perspective, Low Mondays sparks a relevant discussion about work-life balance, but this specific solution may not be right for everyone.
What is this?
According to Senior Principal at Hays, Mario Rocha, “Minimum Mondays“It consists of doing as little as possible on Monday in order to ‘make up’ for the work week that still lies ahead. For Mário Rocha, this technique makes it possible to avoid high levels of stress and anxiety starting the week.
Pedro Amorim, Managing Director Experis and Director of Corporate Clients at ManpowerGroup Portugal, adds that the trend also includes starting the week slowly, without scheduling meetings and making sure that the first two hours of work are away from technologies and without access to email, so as to promote well-being and not backlog orders.
In the remaining hours of the day, the worker continues to perform his main tasks, without distraction or distraction multitasking, and the schedule ends earlier than the other days of the week. In this way, the worker can reduce the stress of the beginning of the week and the preceding Sunday.
Ricardo Carneiro, Senior Director Recruitment and Selection Specialist at Multipessoal, confirms that there are those who describe a slower start to the week as “a very positive thing” for employee performance. In these cases, among the advantages noted is avoiding feeling overwhelmed, as well as reducing productivity at the end of the week.
Where did it come from and to whom?
Mario Rocha and Pedro Amorim explain that this trend was born in the United States, at the hands of Marisa Jo Mayes, creator of digital content on the tiktok platform, a platform in which it also gained popularity, similar to phenomena such as quiet and loud take-off.
Marissa created the concept after struggling with A.J Burnt, in 2020, due to excessive sales workload in medical device company. The concept was meant to ensure their well-being and keep them productive, something the creator claims it helped.
Minimum on Monday It is a phenomenon that has gained special attraction among members of Generation Z, at the beginning of their careers, and Pedro Amorim says that this generation’s interest in this direction is a reflection of their attitude and expectations towards work.
Mario Rocha, chairman of Hays, also follows this line of thinking:
We face a candidate-driven market, which means their needs, ambitions and goals set the trends. From the employer’s point of view, it is necessary to carefully analyze and really think about these phenomena.Mario Rocha, Guide manager in Hays.
Maintaining the perspective of the employer, Ricardo Carneiro, from Multipessoal, indicates that the concept of minimum Mondays should be followed, in particular, by companies that have difficulties recruiting for certain positions (due to a shortage of people, for example), in addition To younger companies with a greater regard for aspects associated with “organizational happiness”, eg Work life balance.
However, he said, there are management models, including jobs related to managing a team, that involve a set of meetings on Mondays that are meant to prepare for the work week. He asserts that this practice collides directly with the concept of minimum Mondays.
Since the basic idea behind the concept Minimum Mondays is a better balance between work and personal life Mario Rocha points out that a good starting point for employers is to listen to employee feedback. However, he points out, there are already companies betting on that credit, specifically with a four-day work week, more days off, mixed working schemes, as well as other benefits in addition to salary.
What are the consequences?
Because it is a very recent trend with little expression, Mario Rocha of Hays and Pedro Amorim of ManpowerGroup argue that it is still difficult to comprehend the consequences of this new way of approaching the work week.
Amorim shares that by adopting this position, there appears to be a risk that workers’ views regarding Monday may be out of step with the needs of their employers. With the possibility of work being “delayed”, and thus delaying work in the following days, all of this can affect the relationship of trust between employers and professionals, which should be a concern for both, he warns.
On the other hand, employers should also view these movements as signs that they may not be responding to the needs of the teams.
According to the “What Workers Want to Thrive” study, developed by ManpowerGroup, workers expect their employers to help them thrive at work and in their personal lives by giving them greater flexibility, along with factors such as confidence, purpose and well-being.Pedro Amorim, Managing Director Experis and Director of Corporate Clients at ManpowerGroup Portugal.
What does psychology say?
For psychologist Katharina Grassa, the Minimum Mondays It is one of the many initiatives that can be adopted in order to reduce the workload. In this case, we’re talking about Monday, but the psychiatrist says it could be a Friday. However, he warns that this is a phenomenon that must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, because we may be “pushing evil forward”.
One of the most important steps, says Catarina Grassa, is to analyze why some change is needed on Monday. “There are people who go into Monday completely motivated, because they think Monday is a new beginning, a new week, new opportunities… For some, it’s the complete opposite,” he explains.
When the need to do the bare minimum appears at the beginning of the week, the psychiatrist raises the importance of asking what is not going well, what makes a person perceive work on Monday as something heavy, worrisome or even painful. On the other hand, Catarina Graça emphasizes that there may also be a question about the corporate culture in the workplace itself, managers, excessive tasks assigned to the employee himself, or even a problem with the company structure.
This “Monday syndrome,” as the psychiatrist calls it, can come from changing your weekend routine to a workday routine. “Effectively, we broke the rhythm a lot [no fim de semana]Even our metabolism ends up slowing down and then, of course, it’s hard to get back to the same rhythm.”
the solution? Implement weekend habits during the work week
If the problem is a change in routine, the psychologist recommends applying some “calming elements” on workdays, implemented on weekends.
“Let’s imagine that on weekends a person likes to sit on the couch and watch TV, read a book, or take a walk,” the psychologist gives an example, explaining that in these cases, implementing these habits during the work week can help. “This can help you not resent this change in routine so often,” he guarantees.
If we plant a few things during the week, some weekend items that help relax and break the mood a little bit, then naturally the week will go a lot smoother and flow better.”Catarina Graça, Psychologist at Clínica da Mente.
This solution prevents a person from arriving on Friday without energy, as well as preventing a person from arriving on a weekend with a desire to try everything “in a very painful way”, but without time to do everything he loves. If we manage to balance things out during the week, this balances the range of well-being a lot, admits Catarina Grassa.
Preparing for the next work week can also help, the psychologist explains, too, not least because not knowing what you’re going to face on Monday can lead to “a lot of anxiety and a lot of stress.” If this balance is not found, many people can end up in a state of burnout, which is indeed a “very different reality from Monday Syndrome,” said the psychologist.
In this sense, if the problem causing concern is not addressed, “you can even work for just a day or two”, then reducing the workload will have no effect. If there continue to be “the same number of assigned tasks, the same amount of beats, the same problems,” he explains, “it’s not because that price is no longer there on Monday.”
However, there are different ways to approach the topic. Catarina Graça points out that there are companies already practicing the casual day on Fridays, and there is even a discussion going on about the four-day week. For the psychologist, minimal Mondays are another attempt to reduce the workload, and it’s an idea with merit, as the psychologist points out that “in Portugal we have studies that say it’s us who work long hours and that’s not why we’re more productive.”