‘Bare Minimum Monday’ is the latest workplace trend
Bare Minimum Mondays goes viral on TikTok. Aliaksandr Barysenka—EyeEm/Getty Images
There’s a reason songs about Mondays tend to be downer.
The Monday blues—that sluggishness people feel as they start their workweek after a weekend—is one of the most common problems faced by working professionals. In a 2021 YouGov poll, 58% of 4,000 respondents said Monday was their least favorite day of the week. A new way of dealing with this problem is one of the latest trends in the workplace – and one that is unlikely to make companies happy.
Bare Minimum Mondays are a version of the Monday blues, with potential implications for employee productivity and the employer-employee equation. It’s a practice where employees show up for work on Mondays to do only the bare minimum, often starting the day late after a productive morning of self-care rituals.
This term was popularized by Marisa Jo, a TikToker, who describes it as a way for her to quell the pressure of work and hold herself accountable for “doing the smallest amount of work necessary to get on with this.” day to come”.
Jo’s work trend videos have gone viral on TikTok, with her last video posted last week garnering over 670,000 views. In this video, Jo goes over some of her habits to slow down Monday and do things that make her feel good. She has her own playlist for so-called “bare minimum mondays” and the hashtag #bareminimummondays has about 1.8 million views.
In a video, she described the trend as “rejecting all the pressure I felt Sunday and Monday” and putting well-being ahead of productivity rather than giving in to the rush.
“I had to tell myself to do whatever it takes to not get sick of how productive I am,” she says in the video.
Jo likens the practice to a trend like quitting quietly, in which employees quietly step away from their work after completing basic tasks to focus on their personal lives. She took on the essentials of Mondays to deal with the pressures of being productive at work every day and going the extra mile with work-related tasks.
Jo’s viral trend is just the latest in a long list of new trends shaping the workplace in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prolonged lockdowns and a sudden shift to the work-from-home culture left many employees overworked, burned out and quitting their jobs in droves, marking the “big retirement”. Though much of the business returned to normal in 2022, Jill Cotton, career trends expert at Glassdoor, pointed out that burnout hit record numbers last year.
“It means that despite all the changes, despite more flexibility, more remote work, we’re not getting that work-life balance right,” she said wealth. “If we look at what employees and workers really want right now, it’s autonomy.”
Offshoots of the quiet cessation trend, such as resentmentism and chaotic work, have become so widespread around the world that a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos was justified. Experts said such trends reflect a changing relationship between employees and their companies and could be the result of a workplace in need of repair.
“Many great employees will be productive if their company sets them up for success,” Cotton said. “I think it’s less about assembly necessities affecting productivity and more about workers and employers working together to create the most productive workplace possible.”
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There’s a reason songs about Mondays tend to be downer.
The Monday blues—that sluggishness people feel as they start their workweek after a weekend—is one of the most common problems faced by working professionals. In a 2021 YouGov poll, 58% of 4,000 respondents said Monday was their least favorite day of the week. A new way of dealing with this problem is one of the latest trends in the workplace – and one that is unlikely to make companies happy.
Bare Minimum Mondays are a version of the Monday blues, with potential implications for employee productivity and the employer-employee equation. It’s a practice where employees show up for work on Mondays to do only the bare minimum, often starting the day late after a productive morning of self-care rituals.
This term was popularized by Marisa Jo, a TikToker, who describes it as a way for her to quell the pressure of work and hold herself accountable for “doing the smallest amount of work necessary to get on with this.” day to come”.
Jo’s work trend videos have gone viral on TikTok, with her last video posted last week garnering over 670,000 views. In this video, Jo goes over some of her habits to slow down Monday and do things that make her feel good. She has her own playlist for so-called “bare minimum mondays” and the hashtag #bareminimummondays has about 1.8 million views.
In a video, she described the trend as “rejecting all the pressure I felt Sunday and Monday” and putting well-being ahead of productivity rather than giving in to the rush.
“I had to tell myself to do whatever it takes to not get sick of how productive I am,” she says in the video.
Jo likens the practice to a trend like quitting quietly, in which employees quietly step away from their work after completing basic tasks to focus on their personal lives. She took on the essentials of Mondays to deal with the pressures of being productive at work every day and going the extra mile with work-related tasks.
Jo’s viral trend is just the latest in a long list of new trends shaping the workplace in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prolonged lockdowns and a sudden shift to the work-from-home culture left many employees overworked, burned out and quitting their jobs in droves, marking the “big retirement”. Though much of the business returned to normal in 2022, Jill Cotton, career trends expert at Glassdoor, pointed out that burnout hit record numbers last year.
“It means that despite all the changes, despite more flexibility, more remote work, we’re not getting that work-life balance right,” she said wealth. “If we look at what employees and workers really want right now, it’s autonomy.”
Offshoots of the quiet quitting trend, such as resentment and chaotic work, have taken hold around the world, warranting a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Experts said such trends reflect a changing relationship between employees and their companies and could be the result of a workplace in need of repair.
“Many great employees will be productive if their company sets them up for success,” Cotton said. “I think it’s less about assembly necessities having an impact on productivity and more about workers and employers working together to create the most productive workplace possible.”