The Sunday Scaries. Did you have them?

C

Camper6

Well-known Member
Location
Northwestern Ontario Canada
When I was working I dreaded Sunday nights. I still do. I copied this from The Atlantic. I didn't realize it was common.
.............

The not-exactly-clinical diagnosis for this late-weekend malaise is the Sunday scaries, a term that has risen to prominence in the past decade or so. It is not altogether surprising that the transition from weekend to workweek is, and likely has always been, unpleasant. But despite the fact that the contours of the standard workweek haven’t changed for the better part of a century, there is something distinctly modern about the queasiness so many people feel on Sunday nights about returning to the grind of work or school.

Regardless of whether people call this experience the Sunday scaries (Sunday evening feeling and Sunday syndrome are two alternatives), a lot of them undergo some variation of it. A 2018 survey commissioned by LinkedIn found that 80 percent of working American adults worry about the upcoming workweek on Sundays. Another survey by a home-goods brand found that the Sunday scaries’ average time of arrival is 3:58 p.m., though they seem to set in later than that for many people. (A cousin of the Sunday scaries is the returning-from-vacation scaries, which can fall on any day of the week.)
 

Yeah, I had these a lot, though I called them the Monday dreads. One of the reasons was that I never knew what was going to hit the fan on Monday -- both my boss and (I theorized) most of our clients, would sit around on the weekends and get all wound up about one thing or another, and it would all land in my face or on my desk on Mondays, seemingly out of nowhere.

Now that I am retired, I still do not like Mondays and avoid scheduling anything for Mondays if I can avoid it.
 
I didn't hate Mondays particularly when I was working because for the last more than 20 years of my working life I was the Boss, and often I'd work on Saturdays and have monday off...

However I hated Mondays as a child at school.. . I think it would be the stress of my mother trying to get all of us kids bathed and clothes ready the night before and all the time the old man's abuse towards us , and the worry also that our homework might be not good enough for teacher or it wasn't done , or we dreaded a school bully , or any amount of reasons, but always dreaded going on Mondays...
 

Oh, yes, I started the Sunday Evening Blues in most of my jobs, especially when I was selling advertising for a large metro daily newspaper.

Because of the strong union presence at the newspaper, there was very little individual accountability in the composing department. We didn't have a union so if we screwed up on the ad, we took it in the neck individually. A composer screwed up, it got charged to the department and nobody particularly cared. They all had what was essentially "jobs for life" and their professionalism reflected that.

If one of my customers had a great big expensive ad in the Sunday paper and it got messed up (or even left out altogether) who do you think heard about it at 8:00 a.m. Monday? Me, who could always be reached or the composing department, who did not deal directly with the public. Yep, you know the answer. The customer didn't care WHO was at fault......he just wanted to extract a pound of flesh from somebody.

So, yeah, I had the Sunday Night Blues.
 
I am not sure if this is pertinent to OP, but here is my story. Yes, I dreaded Sundays when I worked. Having to go back to work and all.
But now, my issue comes the evening before I have a morning appointment of some sort. I find I cannot get to sleep, or sleep well. Usually it is because I am afraid I will oversleep, even though I will set an alarm to get me up in time. I always double and triple check to make sure I set the alarm for the right time, or for AM and not PM.
 
all the same uh? always thought everyone felt the same, post tend to agree, except Sea, which I don't quite follow.
all that freedom to lay in bed Sat. morning. I am free, no one can nag on me today. ah! freedom
 
Aunt Bea said:
Me too!

I've also heard that Sunday evening through Monday morning is prime time for heart attacks.
Click to expand...
tenor.gif
 
Not particularly. It was "back to work" and it varied depending on the time of the year. Winters were spent mostly in the office where there was a "sameness" to most days. Come the good weather and construction season it was back out to whatever highway project I was assigned and then there were bad and good days. Monday could sometimes be one of the bad ones.
 
The hardest part of Mondays and the rest of the school or work week, was that the early hours were counter to my night owl circadian rhythm. It was very hard for me to wake up.

When my kids were in elementary school I started working mostly from home (for our own business) and could orchestrate my hours 90% of the time. If I couldn't fall/stay asleep, rather than torturing myself over it I'd go to my office and work for a while in the wee hours of the morning. If necessary, I'd catch a nap the next day.

No more dread of the M-F workweek.

In yet another of life's cruel ironies, now that I have no need to get out of bed before 9:00 am, I can rarely sleep past 5:00.
 
StarSong said:
The hardest part of Mondays and the rest of the school or work week, was that the early hours were counter to my night owl circadian rhythm. It was very hard for me to wake up.

When my kids were in elementary school I started working mostly from home (for our own business) and could orchestrate my hours 90% of the time. If I couldn't fall/stay asleep, rather than torturing myself over it I'd go to my office and work for a while in the wee hours of the morning. If necessary, I'd catch a nap the next day.

No more dread of the M-F workweek.

In yet another of life's cruel ironies, now that I have no need to get out of bed before 9:00 am, I can rarely sleep past 5:00.
Click to expand...
Star, too funny reading your post. When we owned the company we sold 3 years ago, it was the commute that used to get me, we often got up very early - like 5 am to commute to work. Then I was always an early riser. Now that we're retired, I turned in to a night owl...it was like feeling rich or something to be able to actually "stay up late"...maybe like a kid!
 
No, I didn't get the Sunday scaries. Maybe due to the fact that I didn't work in those type of jobs. I worked as a bartender and usually had Mondays off but I went to job later in early evenings so I basically had the whole day. Later on I was a stay at home mother and my husband owned his own business so I didn't have to worry about it then either. The last part of my working life was working as a CNA (certified nursing assistant) and I worked every other week-end. I was always eager to get back to work after my time off to check on my group of residents.

As far as days of the week go, now every day seems like Saturday.......almost. Monday was always my favorite day and still is. A new week with new possibilities.
 
I remember that feeling, I don’t have it any longer! I now watch people going to work driving their cars while I’m sitting by my pool having my morning coffee.... Hopefully one day they’ll have a chance to experience the retirement that I am now experiencing.
 
Yes, being a party guy back when Sunday evening was not pleasant. In high school we all met in the diner across the street from the school in the morning and on too many occasions we decided Monday was a holiday so we jumped in our cars and goofed off all day doing whatever. I loved doing that back then.
 
When the working environment at my place of employment had deteriorated profoundly going beyond hostile to actively toxic, I did indeed experience the Sunday Scaries. I would envy my cats as I left for work, realizing that they had a better life than I did...
 
Marie5656 said:
I find I cannot get to sleep, or sleep well. Usually it is because I am afraid I will oversleep, even though I will set an alarm to get me up in time. I always double and triple check to make sure I set the alarm for the right time, or for AM and not PM.
Click to expand...
I used two alarms
Slept like a dawg
Went to bed early, thinking about the next day's tasks/issues

Hated Sunday afternoons
No time left to start/finish a project
 

Back
Top