The most emotionally exhausting week of my early career was not one week – it was every week!
By Friday afternoon, I was the happiest employee in the office; the weekend was coming, and I practically floated out the door. By Saturday morning, I was on cloud nine but by Saturday evening, I started to feel my joy quietly ebbing away. By Sunday morning, a low dread had settled in – and not even the hottest Sunday sermon could effectively wage war against it. By Sunday evening, I was an emotional wreck. I hated Mondays with a passion usually reserved for traffic on the Third Mainland Bridge of Lagos.
If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. It has a name: the Sunday Scaries – that creeping wave of anxiety that arrives as the weekend winds down and Monday looms.
The data is sobering. An Adobe survey of over 1,000 workers found that 82% experience the Sunday Scaries, rising to a staggering 94% among Gen Z. A separate Resume.io study found one in seven employees feels this anxiety every week, and 11.7% have actually quit a job over it – with entry-level staff most vulnerable of all. This is not an imaginary problem; it carries real consequences for retention, wellbeing, and productivity.
It Is Not Always the Company. Sometimes It Is the Chair You Sit In
