On the heels of “quiet quitting” and “quiet firing,” “Bare Minimum Mondays” is the latest workplace trend sweeping social media. Bare Minimum Mondays promote prioritizing self-care and easing into the workweek, meaning productivity could take a hit if not properly managed.
While the term may be new, the habit of starting the workweek off slowly isn’t. In fact, managers have pushed for years to help employees begin their Mondays on the right foot. Setting teams up for a productive week can be easier if managers communicate effectively, help employees maintain their work/life balance, and give employees the tools to succeed.
Communication Matters
Communication is the foundation for a productive team, and when communication falters, progress can break down. Managers therefore need to communicate throughout the week with their team, but Monday is an especially important start.
To set the right tone for communication throughout the week, managers can schedule a casual, recurring team meeting to kick off Monday mornings. That meeting can remind employees of team priorities and spark enthusiasm for the projects ahead. By quickly gathering to kick off the week and review priorities, teams can also boost morale through this additional support.
Support Work/Life Balance
Sometimes, employees can become unproductive if they disengage from corporate culture due to poor work/life balance or burnout. While employees can lose focus for reasons other than culture, managers should consider their organization’s culture if they notice unproductive or Bare Minimum Mondays becoming a standard across their team. In fact, if multiple employees feel like they need self-care just to survive the workweek, that could indicate burnout.
Should managers realize their teams might need a break, there are more productive ways to rest and recharge than Bare Minimum Mondays. Instead of watching employees disengage on Mondays, managers can take a more active role to ensure the team has the support they need. This could entail regular team de-stress sessions to focus on mental health, much like companies did during the pandemic with group yoga or meditation. They can also remind employees to take advantage of existing benefits like flexible work schedules and paid time off (PTO) to rest at a more appropriate moment.
Offer Resources for Success
In an ideal world, employees would take the initiative for themselves to ask for the resources or guidance they need to complete a project, but employees may feel paralyzed at times and thus contribute less than their full effort. Managers then have the opportunity to intervene and ask employees how they can help.
Employees who are disengaged consistently may not know which resources they need, so managers need to begin by communicating directly to identify any issues that may be preventing them from coming into the workweek ready to excel. They can then offer to connect employees with the appropriate tools to turn things around, such as training programs, a trusted mentor, time management software, or any other number of resources. If employees are consistently unproductive, they may benefit from a performance improvement plan so they’re held accountable for their job performance.
Bare Minimum Mondays is a trendy term for an age-old challenge, but managers can overcome the issue by focusing on the foundations of communication, work/life balance, and helping employees help themselves.
Niki Jorgensen is a Director of Service Operations with Insperity, a provider of human resources offering a comprehensive suite of scalable HR solutions. For more information about Insperity, visit www.insperity.com.
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