'Bare Minimum Mondays' Are The Latest Self-Care Office Trend

The latest office trend eases into the workweek - by doing less. It's called "Bare Minimum Mondays." But it's not about slacking; it's about self-care.

"It opened up a new world of realizing that I can be nice to myself," says self-employed digital creator and startup co-founder Marisa Jo Mayes. She promoted the Bare Minimum Monday concept with her TikTok videos and they went viral. "People relate to the stress that I'm describing and the overwhelm that I’m describing," says Mayes. "And when they hear about the changes that I feel now, they want in."

From her home in Phoenix, Mayes keeps the first two hours of her Monday free and schedules only three tasks for the day. She's been practicing this minimal approach for the past year, starting off the week with self-care or a leisure activity or even light chores she didn't get around to on the weekend. She says it's actually helped her work better. "It was like some kind of sorcery had happened. As soon as the pressure was gone I was more productive than I've been in a long time," says Mayes.

Bare Minimum Mondays is the latest strategy designed to combat ever-increasing burnout at work. According to the job search engine and review site Glassdoor, the phrase "mental health" in company reviews jumped 91% from 2019 to 2022. Mentions of "burnout" were up 42% in that same time.

Glassdoor's Director of Market Insights Bonnie Chiurazzi says companies acknowledged those problems. "They did provide the resources to their employees. They did encourage their employees to assess their mental health and set boundaries where needed, so they don't, burn out. So, companies and employers play a big role in these trends, too." Chiurazzi adds "If employers are concerned about how this is playing out in the workplace, it's a great time to reopen the discussion about how burnout is affecting employees."

Chiurazzi says that conversation goes both ways. For workers, her advice is "Be transparent. Don't ghost your team or ghost your managers. Let them know you're still working. You're just not taking meetings." And for employers, Bare Minimum Mondays is just one response to battling burnout. "There are an infinite number of solutions," says Chiurazzi. "The more you talk with your workforce, the more that the more solutions you'll be able to find that are going to be a better fit for you."

And while the bare minimum approach isn't possible for everyone, Mayes says there are questions any worker can ask themselves about their time on the clock: "What can I actually take off my list today? Am I setting a plan that only the highest energy version of me can achieve?' It's really asking these questions that can start to get people thinking about themselves as also a human in addition to an employee," says Mayes.