Low energy, high stress: mantra of the modern workplace

Why is Monday morning so daunting? Often, the cause is not our job itself but some mundane ideas and behaviours that we let go unchallenged at work.

The glorious Monday morning has arrived. It is 8.30AM and you are dashing off the tube station, power walking to the office. You even managed to sneak in a thirty-minute cardio session to start the week off the right way. With your semi-skimmed latte in one hand and your gym bag in the other, you almost feel ready to embrace the week.

But there is an underlying sense of dread lying inside since you went to bed the night before. There is that e-mail you got on the weekend that needs to be answered first thing, the team meeting and that report due by the end of your day. They all hang like a sword of Damocles over your head. As if that was not enough, you realise there is a mountain of new demands as soon as you open up your inbox. This adds a pile of new to-dos to your day and demands a swift change of plans. Thankfully, your afternoon team meeting ends up being cancelled. You can finally breathe, but only for a brief moment.

What is, exactly, this underlying subtle dread you simply cannot shake off? There is nothing obviously wrong, after all. In the best case scenario, your job is pretty interesting on most days and you have worked hard to get to where…