<p>I always pretended that Sunday night was really Monday night and that I had already accomplished Monday. I was able to relax and enjoy Sunday evening activities and it made a huge difference for my psyche. It may sound strange, but it worked for me. After I got a job that was less stressful and more enjoyable, I no longer dread working, let alone Mondays.</p>
<p>“The Walking Dead” - too bad it’s over until February now!</p>
<p>^^^yeah, all that good Sunday night TV!</p>
<p>I often come down with “Sunday-nitis” around 3 am before the work week starts. Being tired on Monday morning along with feeling I hardly got anything on my list taken care of is a bad combination. So I try to make sure to eat extra-healthy on Sunday night and get some exercise late in the day so I’m tired.</p>
<p>To get through Mondays (and the rest of the days in a job I don’t love) I think about planning my escape. It may be a year or two from now, but knowing that when my daughter graduates I can move wherever I want is somehow liberating.</p>
<p>Frankly, if one does not want to go to work, then do not. Simple as that, it is time to find another job. Been there, done it several times too…the process should be in a loop until you find a job that you will like to go on Monday and might not feel too bad to work outside of your normal hours (well, most of us are doing it for free, just to keep your job). The job has to be your major entertainment, otherwise I am not sure how to avoid a major depression. The job should be more entertaining than other type of entertainment. However, I am not that bored on the weekends / vacations, I just do not want them to last forever. The biggest fear is to be out of work. Money is one side of it. Another one - I am sure that I will not find another job at my age and not finding it will definitely lead me into the box and 6 feet under, there is nothing else that could be at the same level of entertaining…again, took me 8 other jobs to find this one…</p>
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<p>It’s not that simple, Miami. There are many people in many job markets who are “stuck” because they need the income and benefits without any gaps in employment (which could also hurt their chances of finding another job down the road). And “finding” another job is not as simple as “looking.” Trust me, I have been trying. Also, some jobs start out well and then turn out not to be a good fit anymore due to personnel changes, management decisions, client issues, market factors and so on.</p>
<p>Is that what I have right now? I’m going to work for a week tomorrow, and I feel sick and tired. Can’t seem to get out the door to exercise, cranky, coffee doesn’t help. I need to just go.</p>
<p>Good suggestions, though.</p>
<p>I dreaded Sunday nights before retiring this year. I would schedule some of my vacation and personal days off on Mondays so that I would have the long weekends. I always had a day off coming just around the corner and that kept me sane. My supervisor kept asking me why I never took a one or two week vacation like everyone else. Everyone else kept asking me why I always seemed to have Mondays or Fridays off. </p>
<p>I even began a countdown of the weeks until my retirement…then it turned into days until retirement, and finally hours until retirement. The dreaded Sunday nights are over for you as soon as you leave the workforce.</p>
<p>Today I put in my notice at the job I loathe. In January I start my road to my third career - high school chemistry teacher. I find that I am counting down the days to my LAST DAY and that I no longer have those Sunday night blues (at least for now).</p>
<p>No guarantee that the blues won’t return in a few months, but for now…bliss.</p>
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Around here, math and science tutors for high school make about $100/hour. There’s plenty of demand. And you can fire the student if it doesn’t work out.</p>
<p>Notrichenough, the only thing I am qualified to tutor is Visual Art! I decided that once I retire, I do not want to teach in any way, shape or form. No more lesson planning, prep, clean-up for me after that fateful day. I have loved it dearly and it is my true passion but I don’t want to keep doing it until either I hate it or some poor student hates me.</p>
<p>notrichenough- where do tutors get paid this much? </p>
<p>Sunday nights almost feel like when on you are on vacation and you realize there is only one day left.</p>
<p>We found a way around getting through the latter part of the work week by counting on eating out on friday nights. Sometimes staying in a job is the logical choice but it is fun to try to cope with the stressors in imaginative ways.</p>
<p>rockymtnhigh - I live in a suburb west of Boston. It’s a pretty wealthy town.</p>
<p>rockymt–did this for a few years…changing jobs was the main lifesaver. When you like the work or at least the people you work with it saves you. I actually found the people were more important.
Short term advice. Split up the week–don’t go out to eat on Friday–go on Tuesday or Wednesday–put your treats in the middle of the week. Or like someone mentioned go to a club meeting or some other fun activity mid week. It clears the head and gives new perspective when you need it.</p>
<p>My hs d suffers from this nearly every week. And by Monday after school she is fine.</p>
<p>Is there anything that could happen Monday mornings at your job that would let you look forward to it instead of dread it? Or at least not ruin Sunday night? Something easy I could implement. Not sure how many people in my office suffer from this but I know it’s fairly common.</p>
<p>sally,
"It’s not that simple, Miami. There are many people in many job markets who are “stuck” because they need the income and benefits without any gaps in employment "
-That is why you should look for a job while working. Don’t you think I know that? I have changed my jobs 9 times in one of the most economically depressed redions of the country (always was this way). If you think that Detroit is bad, keep in mind that many from my city are driving to Detroit (1+ hour to drive one way) on a daily basis. I have done that also (not exactly to Detroit but in this direction and for the job that was about 50% lower pay than my previous one). After 9 jobs, I am well aware that job may start OK and then not to be OK. The biggest downturn usually occurred in my cases with the change of management. Been there, done it, had to learn everything alll over at every place (usually on my own, no training). One do what she has to do to make yourself happy. But it may not be the goal. Some people are fine feeling miserable every day. Your choice, your right…</p>
<p>I used to be a Saturday emergency dispatcher handling no heat calls from our customers during the wintertime. I worked alone and had to decide the best way to solve problems and coordinate closely with my two or three on-call technicians out in the field. Some techs were easy to work with and very professional. Others seemed to like to argue, whine, and overrule me. None of them wanted to be on-call naturally.</p>
<p>So I would stroll into work on Monday morning at 9:30 AM, as I had irregular hours and worked until 6:00 PM. I was often blindsided by a clerk or a supervisor of a tech who would second guess my decisions and wouldn’t listen to an explanation. My day was already ruined by then, and next stop was my supervisor’s office for either a woodshed verbal beating, or an “attaboy” pep talk and she would handle it from there. She would stick up for me as long as I didn’t screw up. </p>
<p>If I explained to them that I was trying to get a customer heat and save their business they would tell me how much money I had cost the company. If I tried to get the job done the least expensive way they would ask me why I didn’t have the tech do something that cost a little more money. The worst thing was some techs would insist the customer never told me something, or I had failed to ask the right question.</p>
<p>I promise to black out memories of those horrible Mondays for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>For almost two years, I worked in another state, where I also stayed during the week. The job, and management, were both horrible. After about nine months of driving down Monday morning, I finally decided I’d drive down on Sunday night instead. It pretty much eliminated the Sunday night dreadful feeling and made my Monday morning the same as my other weekday mornings.</p>
<p>But it made for a pretty crappy Sunday afternoon!</p>