The four-day week debate has been raging on for years now with workers pushing to improve their work/life balance.
And so far, research suggests that those who work them are happier, less stressed, and take fewer sick days throughout the year.
Additionally, it turns out that workers aren’t all that productive every day of the week anyway – with a recent report from B2B Reviews revealing that employees are 2.5 times more productive on Tuesdays than on Mondays.
Who knew?
‘Bare minimum Monday’ is trending on social media
The four-day mindset is already in place for some social media creators who are embracing what they’re calling ‘bare minimum Mondays’.
A ‘bare minimum Monday’ involves doing the bare minimum for your job like sending an important email, filing some invoices or getting round to planning that project you’ve been meaning to get off the ground, and spending the rest of the time looking after yourself and taking it easy.
As Caitlin Winter (@caitlinjwinter) explains on TikTok, for her this looks like going to the gym in the morning, having a healthy breakfast, spending time on work tasks she never gets to, working on personal and professional development, walking her dog and meal-prepping for the week.
There’s been some pushback against this with users commenting: “First quiet quitting and now this? Does your generation ever work?”
But some creators argue that this is both in response to experiencing burnout and preventing it happening again. After all, if you’re not feeling emotionally capable of working because of burnout, you’re not a very useful employee.
Additionally, these days seem to still be productive but just not at the cost of the worker’s mental health.
So, if this is happening anyway, why hasn’t the four-day week been implemented yet?
Well, some businesses fear that it could be an expensive, not to mention risky option. Adecco Group in the US argues: “Employers may not be able to hire more people to cover decreased working hours.”
They add: “Managing multiple teams on a four-day work week can be challenging, especially if the business runs 24/7.
“If these employee days off are scattered, it can be difficult to set up team meetings and it can be difficult to manage projects.”
So, it may be a while until we see most businesses fully embracing the four-day model but until then, there’s always ‘bare minimum Monday’.