Mondayitis alive and well in New Zealand

Mondayitis alive and well in New Zealand

“Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” is a popular quote attributed to Confucius about two and a half thousand years ago, but it seems Kiwis are nowhere near making it a reality.

In a recent Trade Me Jobs survey of 899 New Zealanders, 43.5 per cent listed Mondays as their least favourite day and many said that was because of their jobs and being back at work for another week.

Head of Trade Me Jobs Peter Osborne said he ran this survey to test for ‘Mondayitis’. “I was really interested to see if the facts backed up popular belief that the Monday blues are real or if they’re just an urban myth.

“It also helps us walk a mile in a job hunter’s shoes – we want to understand what they’re going through to better communicate with them so we can be as helpful as possible. What we found was that Kiwis experience some very negative emotions on a Monday and to me that says Mondayitis is real.”

The top five emotions that respondents reported feeling on Mondays were: anxiety, stress frustration, indifference and optimism. Conversely on Fridays they listed feeling relief, excitement, joy, satisfaction and optimism.

Mr Osborne said that while the results weren’t entirely a shock, the number of people reporting such extreme emotions on a Monday was a bit of a worry. “I thought our respondents would talk about sadness and boredom as their dominant emotions on a Monday, not anxiety and stress. To me that’s a concern and pretty sad. We spend a huge percentage of our adult life at work – to feel anxious, stressed and frustrated every Monday is not good for you. It’s just plain unhealthy.”

The survey didn’t show a major difference between men and women’s thoughts about Mondays but factors like job hunting status, age and being a parent had a dramatic effect on the strength of Mondayitis.

More than half of active job hunters said Monday was their least favourite day of the week, 20 per cent more than those not looking for a role. Active job hunters also indicated they feel far greater anxiety, boredom, despair, frustration, helplessness and sadness.

Mr Osborne said anyone in that situation long term needs to make a change. “That change can be very small like talking with your manager to manage these feelings, or something a bit more drastic like a new job or even a new career.

“If you know someone looking for work or unhappy with their job for whatever reason, having an understanding of the emotions they are likely feeling on Monday morning can go a long way to helping support them. Give them a hug, tell them you love them or even send a text on a Monday morning to show you care. Being aware and supportive of their feelings could make a real difference.”

Other findings included:
The younger you are, the stronger negative and positive emotions you list on Mondays and Fridays;
People with pre-schoolers feel far greater levels of excitement on a Monday than people without kids.
People actively looking for a new role feel far stronger negative emotions on a Monday than those not looking at all
Kiwis listed as work/life balance as the most important factor when looking for a new role.

ENDS

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