Gen Z has found a new excuse to slack off at work with ‘Bare Minimum Mondays’ trend

Young employees are reportedly doing as little as possible on Mondays as part of a #BareMinimumMondays trend that’s evidently picked up steam in recent years.

The hashtag was invented by TikTok user Marisa Jo Mayes, according to the New York Post.

“When Mayes, 29, grew frustrated with her corporate job, she turned to self-employment but realized the problem she still faced: She was a self-dubbed perfectionist,” the Post reported Thursday.

“I would wake up on Monday, really burned out, really unproductive. And because I was so unhappy with how unproductive I was being, I would make myself out a long list of things to do,” Mayes told the outlet.

But by the end of the day, she’d wind up so overwhelmed by her extensive “to do” list that she’d feel “like s–t” and wind up barely getting her work done.

Over time, Mayes came to dread Mondays because of this.

“Every Sunday night, I would stay up really late, knowing that Monday would come faster the sooner that I went to bed. Then I would sleep in as late as I possibly could on Monday, knowing that the second I wake up, the second stress comes back and the second my long to-do list would come back,” she explained.

And that’s why she invented #BareMinimumMondays.

@itsmarisajo Replying to @alysialovesmakeup This shift would’ve saved me so much stress & overwhelm back in my corporate days ‍ #bareminimummonday #bareminimummondays #worklifewellbeing #burnoutrecovery #wfhtips ♬ Theme From A Summer Place – Percy Faith

“The premise … is this: Many of us spend Sundays making ‘insanely long to-do lists,’ putting ourselves under ‘paralyzing’ pressure to get our lives together. As a result, we hit Mondays primed for stress and unable to focus or engage properly with work,” CNN also reported Thursday, quoting from Mayes.

“This sense of chaotic unease ripples across the week, costing us more in terms of productivity and vitality than any amount of effort can compensate for. Bare minimum Monday devotees instead make the conscious decision to coast on the first day of the working week, thus conserving their energy,” according to CNN.

“It was like some magic spell came over me. I felt better. I wasn’t overwhelmed, and I actually got more done than I expected,” Mayes told CNN, describing the change that took place once she adopted #BareMinimumMondays into her life.

“It’s more of an opportunity for people to start untethering themselves from hustle culture, little by little, until corporate America catches up. The tide is turning, and I feel like employees are tired of trading their well-being to perform well at work,” she added.

Amazingly, and rather counter-intuitively, #BareMinimumMondays has been a boon for Mayes’ productivity.

“The day Mayes decided to lower her self-set expectations, the more productive she was while working, she claimed — the seemingly insurmountable summit of tasks became more feasible when narrowed down to just a few. Now, she said, it’s changed her life,” according to the Post.

“It has completely overhauled my relationship to productivity and work and how I think about myself,” she explained in her own words.

@itsmarisajo I don’t even want to know what my life would look like without Bare Minimum Monday & @spacetimemonotasking #wfh #selfemployed #worklifewellbeing #bareminimummonday #bareminimummondays #burnoutrecovery #selfemployedlife ♬ Theme From A Summer Place – Percy Faith

Some others have found the same success with the trend, including Avery Morris, a 21-year-old “senior influencer marketing manager.”

She told the Post that #BareMinimumMondays have helped “relieve” the anxiety she experiences at the beginning of the work week.

“I think for so many years, people’s vocation ran their life instead of the other way around, and so I think people really like the idea of taking control of their schedule and their workload,” she said.

Perhaps, but many members of the public — particularly older members — don’t like this trend one bit.

Look:

Corporations also aren’t too happy about the trend either, not that Mayes cares.

“If corporations are emailing me being like, ‘What the hell are you doing? Our employees are all doing this!’ — well, then, take a look in the mirror,” she told the Post.

“It seems like the more we start prioritizing our well-being and treating ourselves like actual humans, the more corporate has an issue with that,” she added.

Vivek Saxena

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