If you find yourself getting sad on Sundays — what many like to call the “Sunday scaries” — you’re far from alone. According to one poll, more than four out of five Americans reported feeling depressed and anxious on Sunday evenings. As the final weekend day comes to an end, people start preparing their evening, and looking toward the next week with anxiety and stress.
It’s common to think about how we’re going to make it through Monday at work. Maybe you feel anxious about not having projects done. Maybe you’re preemptively worried your boss is going to tell another joke about his wife and expect us to laugh.
We can’t control the things our bosses find funny, but we can band together with our coworkers and do a few things to make life around the office easier. Here are three of those things.
Change the coffee culture
Most offices use a basic coffee set-up. Every morning, someone fills the dirty old Mr. Coffee carafe with water, places coffee grounds in the machine, and hits a button to start brewing. The coffee is always there, but it’s rarely good. Sometimes it’s even stale and has the the texture of motor oil. If that sounds familiar, then your office needs a crash course in how to make coffee. Upgrading the coffee equipment can be cheaper than you realize, and even if it’s not, your bosses still might find it a worthy investment.
That doesn’t mean you should go to your supervisor’s office and demand a full-service coffee bar in the lobby of your office, but it does mean you can ask for a higher quality of coffee than what you’re currently receiving. Some offices do well with single-serve machines that allow employees to choose from a variety of flavored pots and brew their own cup of coffee. Other offices stick with making a pot of coffee in the morning but decide to order better beans from a mail order coffee subscription club. A fresh hot cup of coffee can provide both certain health benefits as well as a good mood about getting to work in the morning.
Create fun incentives
After Congress passed tax cuts in late 2017, many businesses responded by giving their employees one-time bonuses rather than long-term pay raises. While it is a nice temporary boost in morale, it is not necessarily enough to sustain positivity throughout the office. Employers can provide something else in the form of a fun incentive that motivates the office to work harder.
This is another suggestions that will work best if you gather a few coworkers to make the suggestion together. You don’t want your superiors to feel like you’re ganging up on them, so make sure to sound as friendly as possible when you suggest something like a monthly raffle for employees who meet certain goals. The goals could be something related to the job, or it could be something random like “People who wore blue on Friday.” It’s best to mix things up and make everyone feel like they have an equal chance of winning cool prizes like gift cards to local restaurants or gift baskets full of chocolate.
Schedule a party
When all else fails, throw a party — but be careful how you do it. You want the party to be as inclusive and fun as possible. Your coworkers will probably want the party to have alcohol, but check with your office and human resources department first to determine if booze is allowed on the premises. Some offices would have no problem with its employees running down to a liquor store Woodbridge, NJ, while other offices would be horrified by the merest mention of mixed drinks at work.
If there’s no alcohol allowed, then you can adjust and use that money for food instead. Get a cake decorated with a message, even if the message is something silly like “Congratulations on surviving winter!” Coworkers can bond over just about anything if there’s cake.
