Here’s how to cure your weekend woes.
Ever heard of the “Sunday Scaries”?
Yes, they’re exactly what they sound like: The term describes that all-too-familiar feeling of dread you might feel at the end of the weekend, when the fun is over and another big work week looms ahead.
While the feeling might be as old as work itself, the phrase was coined around 2009, and has gone on to inspire a seemingly endless stream of content. It’s hard to log on to any social media platform on a Sunday without scrolling past at least one nod to those infamous Scaries — and unfortunately, it looks like this specific type of anxiety is only becoming more common.
According to a survey conducted by LinkedIn in December, a whopping three-quarters of working Americans now experience the Sunday Scaries, with one-quarter of U.S. workers saying they recently experienced them for the first time.
But why is this happening now? And where do we go from here?
To get to the bottom of this deep, dark, and dare we say scary rabbit hole, Katie Couric Media spoke with Andrew McCaskill, a LinkedIn career expert. Below, McCaskill shares his best advice for moving through that brutal weekend afternoon and into the week ahead with energy and optimism.
Why there’s been a dramatic rise in Sunday Scaries
According to the LinkedIn survey, this sudden and dramatic rise in workplace-related anxiety has to do with economic anxiety more than anything else.
74% of survey participants confirmed that the current economic unrest in the country has directly affected the stress they feel on Sundays. Even more alarmingly, 40% of participants went so far as to say this anxiety has started to affect every aspect of their life, not just their professional outlook.
Unfortunately, these anxieties aren’t actually restricted to one day of the week. In fact, the mindfulness-focused company Headspace told Katie Couric Media that 30% of its members have difficulty sleeping up to four times a week, due to fears over losing their job.
Oh, and have we mentioned yet that this economic anxiety is almost certainly amplified by our years-long battle with Covid-19?
“There’s been a ton of change over the last few years,” McCaskill says. “I mean, we’ve had a global pandemic. On top of that, people are also figuring out how to navigate remote and hybrid work. Employees are generally feeling pretty burned out.”
McCaskill also notes that people are facing an onslaught of headlines and media scrutiny over all those layoffs in the tech industry — which, he points out, can often mislead readers about the actual state of the job market right now.
“There’s just about one open role for every job seeker on our platform,” McAndrew points out. “We’re still at record low unemployment in this country. There’s so much opportunity out there right now, despite what the headlines say.”
Which generation experiences Sunday Scaries the most?
“One of the things we found in the survey was that millennials and Gen Z are feeling those Sunday Scaries way more than Boomers,” McCaskill says. “Gen Z in particular was more likely to say that their Sunday Scaries have increased, specifically in response to the fear of a recession.”
This information could be surprising, given that Gen-Z is the farthest from retirement age of any adult generation. But McCaskill sees it as less of a worry about finances in the short- or mid-term, and more of a long-term concern over one’s general career prospects.
“Many young people entered the workforce during the pandemic and went straight into remote workplaces,” McCaskill explains. “As a result, there’s a lot of angst and anxiety around what is ‘normal.'”
McCaskill also noted that the last year of economic certainty didn’t do anything to help this young generation.
“They don’t know what to think when they see layoff headlines,” he says. “Additionally, a lot of these younger professional don’t have confidence in their skills yet, because they’ve only been using them for a short period of time. This means that they don’t have a clear understanding of their value in the job market.”
How to alleviate the Sunday Scaries, according to a LinkedIn expert
If you experience the Sunday Scaries from time to time, then hopefully this article has helped to remind you that you’re not alone. And if you’re wondering how to find some relief from this terrible dread, McCaskill has a few pieces of advice.
“Agency begins with awareness,” he points out. “Using a social media platform to look at what other people are saying about issues like the Sunday Scaries can be a good way for you to get more information.”
McCaskill also notes that LinkedIn does feel a certain responsibility, as a professional marketplace, to “play a role in helping to alleviate some of that professional anxiety.” That’s why the platform recently partnered with Headspace to provide a series of educational courses on managing everyday stress, mindful workdays, and more.
“Once you’re aware of a problem and you know that you’re not alone in experiencing that problem, you can start seeking out the opportunities to solve that problem,” McCaskill says.
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