What is ‘bare minimum Mondays’, the latest workplace trend going viral on social media?
This term has been popularised by Marisa Jo, a TikToker, who describes it as a way for her to crack down on the work pressure and hold herself accountable to "completing the least amount of work necessary to get by that day."
All you need to know about 'bare minimum Mondays' (Source: Getty Images) In the past year, a workplace trend known as ‘quiet quitting’ gained significant popularity on social media platforms like TikTok and Twitter. This trend involved employees opting to fulfil only the bare essential requirements of their job, leading to widespread approval among the younger generation. Actions associated with quiet quitting included leaving work promptly at the end of one’s shift, requesting fair compensation for additional tasks, refraining from taking on ambitious projects, maintaining a clear separation between one’s identity and their job, and establishing adequate work-life balance. Recently, another trend has surfaced on social media called ‘Bare Minimum Mondays’, which follows a similar theme.
But, what does it entail? As the name suggests, ‘bare minimum Mondays’ is a practice of doing only the bare minimum work on the first day of the week. As we know, working Mondays can be increasingly overwhelming for some employees after a no-work weekend. With deadlines, expectations, and pressures setting in, this trend seeks to encourage a slow start to the week.
Happy bare minimum Monday to everyone that had to work today 🫶🏼
— Saül (@hertiz_) May 29, 2023
This term has been popularised by Marisa Jo, a TikToker, who describes it as a way for her to crack down on the work pressure and hold herself accountable to “completing the least amount of work necessary to get by that day.” In one of the videos, she described the trend as “rejection of all the pressure I felt on Sunday and Monday” and prioritising self-care and well-being over productivity and hustle.
“I had to tell myself to do the bare minimum in order to not make myself sick over how productive I was being,” she added, comparing the trend to ‘quiet quitting’. So far, #bareminimummondays has acquired approximately two million views on TikTok.
In an interview with Business Insider, she shared that practising ‘bare minimum Mondays’ has been like some “magic spell” for her. I felt better. I wasn’t overwhelmed, and I actually got more done than I expected. Letting myself off the hook for a lot of unspoken expectations and rules that didn’t really matter was so liberating,” she said.
Taking inspiration from Marisa, Caitlin Winter, a 31-year-old marketing manager in Adelaide, has incorporated this practice into her team to allow the staff to treat themselves with “space and kindness” before a productive week ahead. “A lot of people think it means I sit in my PJs all day in front of the TV and do no work. But in reality, it is simply a day where we work from home, don’t schedule any meetings, and generally just treat ourselves with a little more space and kindness to set up for a productive week ahead. For us, it means not putting pressure on ourselves to get those big projects done,” she told news.com.au.
Bare minimum Monday may be one of the worst strategies of all time 👎 pic.twitter.com/3wEuvQ8bOH
— Tom Toole (@TomToole3rd) May 23, 2023
Such workplace trends, rapidly emerging after the pandemic, have been met with mixed responses. While some call them “lazy” and “entitled” Gen-Z trends, others underline that they mean to promote better mental health and work-life balance.
Bare minimum Mondays
Let this be a thing please
— Efren Adrian Llanos (@EFRENchkiss) May 29, 2023
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