We all know that feeling.
You’re basically ebullient with joy when the clock strikes 12pm on a Friday – you can smell the weekend and you cannot wait to leave the office.
Then Sunday comes, and your mood dips. It may be a case of the Sunday night blues, Sunday scaries, Sunday sadness or Sunday ‘depression’ – the fact that what you’re feeling has got so many names is what makes it scary.
The feeling of regret mixed with dread, anxiety and foreboding “is not something you would be diagnosed with if you were to visit a doctor or therapist”, according to Better Help, but “despite its lack of official presence in the medical community, the phenomenon is very real”.
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The distress, panic, slight nausea or regret many of us feel as the sun sets on Sunday can be linked to the rise in stress as the health epidemic of the 21st century, reports Forbes, citing World Health Organisation (WHO) data and a poll by Monster which found that 76% of Americans have “really bad” Sunday night blues.
Of course, it’s not just those of us who follow a traditional work week who experience this “phenomenon”. Students and employees working whatever type of week feel this kind of unsettling Sunday night feeling too.
Psychologists call it “anticipatory anxiety”, according to CNN Health, which reported that nearly two-thirds of 1 000 people surveyed in 2019 said they had a restless night’s sleep come Sunday night, attributing it to job-related anxiety.
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Eighty per cent of professional said they experienced this type of anticipatory anxiety, a LinkedIn survey found, tracing it to “a rush of hormones associated with work-related stress and dread”.
While more than 3 300 workers at 70 UK companies this week started working a four-day week – with no loss of pay – in the world’s biggest trial of the new working pattern, for those employees still stuck between joining the Great Resignation or miserably holding on to a job they both loathe and fear losing it’s time to do some introspection.
If you’re one of those people who feel the Sunday Blues, this may be just one of the many signs it’s time to leave your job. Here are eight others, according to Lynn Taylor, the author of Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant:
- Your skills are being under-utilised
- You’re not following your passion
- You're not being paid fairly
- There is lack of alignment between your personal values and the company’s
- Your voice is not heard
- Your job is detrimental to your mental health
- You’re surrounded by bad behaviour – whether it be bullying or sexual harassment
- You know you could contribute more elsewhere
Sources: LinkedIn; Headspace; CNN; Forbes; Better Help; The Guardian UK
