How to Love Mondays

According to research from the London School of Business and Finance almost half of us are not happy at work. If you're one of these people, or you have a job that doesn't fulfil you and give you that Holy Grail called job satisfaction, those Sunday blues can almost be overwhelming. They can start just after lunch on Sunday and colour your whole afternoon and evening – you may even find yourself staying up as late as possible in an attempt to avoid Monday arriving. It doesn't work though, does it?

It is possible to love Mondays, to look forward to, or even embrace the coming week. You just need to change the way you think about them. Instead of lamenting the end of the weekend, look at the positive things about your job and the week ahead.

Think about what you enjoy about your job taking our Flourish at Work model and the six feelings that individuals need to feel in order to flourish at work:

• Valued

Remind yourself how valued you are at work. Your boss, your colleagues, the business itself, all rely on you to do a great job. If you don't feel valued at work, try to imagine what would happen if you weren't there. Also think about asking people for some feedback so that you can feel more valued, we're all more likely to complain than praise, but when we're asked we can often think of lots of great things to say about our colleagues.

• Autonomous

Appreciate the autonomy you have to do your job, recognising that many people don't have any at all.

• Challenged

If your job challenges you remember how those challenges are helping you to build your experience and skills set, making you more resilient and able to deal with more complex issues.

• Passionate

Having a job you're passionate about doesn't have to mean you're changing the world. If you're passionate about the product you offer, the field you work in, the service you provide, that passion is what drives you and makes Mondays better.

• Safe

Safe is a tricky one at the moment, there is a lot of uncertainty in the world since Brexit and now the US election, making people fear for the future of their jobs more than in recent times. However, look for something that makes you feel safe about your job, it may be that you're training for an accreditations e.g. CIPD or CIM etc. or simply that you know your boss or team value your role and the work you do. Safe is also about feeling supported too, so find someone who you can talk to at work, a good colleague or your boss, anyone who makes you feel that support.

• Connected

Feeling connected to your boss, your team, the business as a whole, or even a network of people in similar roles on a LinkedIn group, helps make you feel part of a community. Humans feel happier in a community, we're not a solitary species, so feeling connected will instantly make you happier about going into work. Having a close colleague to share your day with makes it far more enjoyable, so try to travel in together or get in a little earlier on Mondays and grab a coffee and a chat before you go to the office.

It's rare to have a job that has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever, so even if you can't think of a positive thing to say for each of the six feelings listed above, you should be able to manage a few. Write them down and make them you Sunday night mantra, read them out loud and remind yourself that Monday's aren't so bad after all. Have a great week.

Employee engagement