I came across an article earlier this week, which highlighted a concept I was definitely aware of, but I didn't realise it had a name all of its own - Sunday Night Fear - that feeling of dreading returning to work on a Monday morning.
Research commissioned by recruitment specialists CV Library, shows that a third of UK professionals suffer from SNF (sorry...), with 26% admitting that they have called in sick because they were too worried to go to work. As their article goes on to say, this is very bad for business - if someone doesn't want to come to work on a Monday, they are not happy in their jobs.
While I am sure that we can all recognise that end of the weekend feeling, there is more to SNF than just "Booo, the weekend is over". For me a few key questions come out of the research:
Are you currently working with people who might be in this position?
Do you, and others in your organisation, pay attention so as to spot the signs?
Are you equipped to know what to look out for and what to do if an issue is identified?
Does anything in the culture of our organisation stigmatise this type of issue and the struggles that will often sit behind it?
As with so many aspects of mental health in the workplace, prevention is so much better than cure, for everybody. Worth a ponder.
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