The Battle Over Mondays in the Office
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Here's your Monday briefing for Monday, July 17th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. For some office employees on a hybrid schedule, working from home on Monday might be a no-brainer as they ease back into the work week. Many managers disagree.
There's a movement called Bare Minimum Mondays, even, where workers advocate really taking it easy on Monday so that... They give themselves a break and don't burn out. Managers are fed up with this, and they are starting to say, hey, we want Monday to be in person, in the office. Get your butt in your chair at 9 a.m., and let's treat Monday like any other day.
We'll talk to Wall Street Journal contributor Anne-Marie Chaker after the break.
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Managers are making a push to get workers into the office on Mondays, and in some cases, it's not going over very well with workers. WSJ's Anne-Marie Chaker joins us. So, Anne-Marie, many companies are still on a hybrid schedule.
Why are managers pushing for in‑office Mondays now?
What days do workers tend to come into the office?
Yeah, the big days tend to be in the middle of the week, right? So Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, those are the days that companies ask workers to come in. They can set their own schedule. Sometimes they see who else is going to be there. They can schedule a desk. Fridays tends to be the day when most people work from home. And Mondays, it's a little bit more hit or miss.
All right. So then why the focus on Mondays from the companies?
So Mondays has always been the let's get out of the weekend and get back to work day. And companies are finding that workers tend to blow off Mondays a little bit. They tend to make it the day when they come back from their weekend. So they'll be in the car literally phoning it in or answering emails and everything. There's a movement called Bare Minimum Mondays even where workers advocate like really taking it easy on Monday so that they give themselves a break and don't burn out. Managers are fed up with this and they are starting to say, hey, we want Monday to be in person in the office. Get your butt in your chair at 9 a.m. and let's treat Monday like any other day.
I mean, I've heard of a case of the Mondays, but it's got its own movements among employees.
Right. Yeah. There's a whole movement on TikTok and elsewhere where employees post videos of themselves lighting candles, taking it easy on themselves and telling themselves not to go too crazy on a Monday.
But before the pandemic, Monday was the day when a lot of departments would get people together and map out the plan for the week. Why do a lot of workers feel differently now?
It's funny, isn't it? Monday was the day when it wasn't all that strange or bizarre to get in an office meeting and sort of plan the week. And managers are saying, what's the big deal that this is something that happens? is not unusual for us to want to map out the week, get our goals. And we've written a lot about burnout and employees saying that we need to be treated as adults and the work is going to get done, but it's going to get done at the pace that we want it to get done.
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