A recent survey, by Currys revealed that over half of Brits suffer from pre-work anxiety, admitting to experiencing a phenomenon called the “Sunday Scaries”. The study features a list of 12 pre-work anxieties that workers go through.

Top of the list of scaries was the fear that the “boss wants to talk”, with 35% selecting this as one of their work-related anxieties. “Receiving a no-context message from the boss asking for a ‘chat’ seems to be a very common worry among UK employees,” said the study. 24% of those surveyed detailed actually “going to the office” as one of their biggest triggers. 

Businesses will not want their employees to experience the “Sunday scaries”. It is a recipe for an unhappy and unproductive workforce. Employers can, however, take-away some practical ideas from the list compiled by Currys:

  • Look at the ‘first’ day of the week for most of your employees and consider offering a ‘first day of the week incentive’. Perhaps it could be having breakfast delivered to the office, a more relaxed start-time or an optional group activity. Make sure that those who work part-time and don’t work on your ‘first’ day are not left out – you should consider offering something else as an incentive on their ‘first’ day.
  • Give detailed consideration to hybrid working patterns for those for whom this is possible. 
  • Given the number of employees who were made anxious by no-context messages asking for a ‘chat’, consider training managers to be more direct and detailed in their written communications. Providing a little context to a meeting request could help to ease the anxieties of your workforce.

Read more from Currys here: Currys study page:   https://www.currys.co.uk/techtalk/how-to/monday-hell.html

Speak to Jon Dunkley

Jon is a Partner at Wollens and can advise you. Contact Jon via email jon.dunkley@wollens.co.uk or call 01271 341021.

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