When a woman chirps, “Uh-oh! Sounds like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays” to her frustrated coworker in the movie Office Space, employees around the world know exactly what that means. Even when you like your job, Mondays seem especially difficult to get through. Perhaps it’s because there’s more work at the beginning of the week, or maybe it has to do with the fact that Monday morning is the farthest point from the weekend. Either way, ask around and most people will tell you that Monday’s the most depressing day of the week and Saturday’s the happiest.
However, a joint study by the University of Sydney and the NTF Group reached a different conclusion. Based on its findings, Wednesdays are more likely to be bad-mood culprits and Sundays have the best outlooks.
Woeful Wednesdays, Sunny Sundays
This study, which was published in a 2008 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, asked 202 people to predict their moods for the following week. The majority of those polled believed that they would feel down in the dumps on Monday, but that their happiness would gradually increase as the week went on, peaking on Friday and Saturday. Because Friday represents the end of the workweek and Saturday is work-free, these days were seen as the most exciting. People have autonomy regarding how they spend their time, whereas on Mondays and during the rest of the week, everything must revolve around their jobs.
To see how accurate these mood hypotheses were, researchers surveyed 351 more people during the week, asking whether they felt sad, glad, frustrated, and so forth. After they analyzed the data, it was clear that people’s state of mind varied surprisingly little throughout the week. More were in a funk on Wednesdays than on any other day, but the difference wasn’t terribly significant. The same could be said of Sundays and improved moods. In general, Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays weren’t as extreme as people believed them to be. Depression levels didn’t soar at the beginning of the week, nor did excitement levels toward the end.
Burnouts and Bumper-to-Bumper Commutes
Most people I know think of Monday mornings and Sunday nights after 5 p.m. as mood lows because of the onset of the workweek. (This includes both people who love their jobs and people who loathe them.) When I told a friend about the study, she too was confused by the results, but then looked at the situation from a different angle. “For me, Wednesday is good because it usually goes by quickly and then the week is almost over. I can see the end in sight, as opposed to on Monday or Tuesday,” she surmised. “But the beginning of the week is a fresh start and the end is the start of the weekend, whereas the middle is nothing. People are probably burned out from working [by then].”
Other than being the midpoint, Wednesdays have another mark against them. According to a 2008 national traffic survey by INRIX, a Washington-based company, Wednesday mornings offer the worst commutes for drivers. Monday, the supposed hardest day of the week, actually starts us off on a high note—it’s the best day traffic-wise. And Friday between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., the hour many of us look forward to most, is the most congested and gridlocked of the whole week—probably because everyone’s in such a hurry to get the weekend started!
A New Perspective on the Workweek
After reading about this study, I tried to pay attention to my daily mood shifts. Even though I’ve always considered Saturday my favorite day of the week, I tend to use that time for crossing things off my to-do list. Sunday may be the precursor to Monday, but for me it’s much more relaxed and free—not to mention the fact that it usually begins with brunch, arguably my favorite event of the week. The whole weekend may consist of work-free time, but only the professional kind; for me and for many others I know, much of the weekend is devoted to personal errands. Professor Charles Areni, the study’s lead researcher, believes this has much to do with why weekends are ultimately less exciting in real life: we build them up to levels of excitement that aren’t always possible in reality.
