Jobhop Jobhop's blog : Blue Monday Doesn’t Have to Be The Most Depressing Day of The Year For Employees

Monday 16th January 2017, known as Blue Monday, a day when it’s wise not to make eye contact with too many people!

Monday morning could have people feeling miserable because it’s the day they realise how much they overspent at Christmas, the day they realise pay day is ages away, on top of that the weather is cold and grey, there’s a lack of sunlight, and spring feels far away! Also, add to the mix the fact that many people have given up on their New Year's resolutions and now feel like a failure. Colds are rife due to immune systems lowered by too much alcohol over the Christmas, and the diet to shift the extra pounds gained has turned them into a ranting ogre! People, in general, are pissed off during January and especially on Blue Monday! The formula to work out the most depressing day is an accumulation of weather, debt, motivational levels, time and broken New Year resolutions. The word on the street is that the formula was worked out by a professor of maths, but the real story is that it's a formula put together by a psychologist for a PR stunt in 2005 by Sky Travel to sell more holidays during January! The formula isn’t even a true formula! Knowing that it was only a PR stunt makes everything better, doesn’t it! It just shows us the power of suggestion; we’re told to be down in the dumps on a certain day and we are! Let’s stop it now!

Tell the story

Monday morning when your employees rock up to the office make sure they see the sign on the white board “It was just a PR stunt!” and let them know the story. We all love a good story, and the beauty about this one is that it will get them to think about the power of PR, it could start the creative juices flowing.

Joke of the hour

Every hour send out a joke to your employees. Cheesy, corny ones will work the best, you’ll find plenty of them on Google.

Happy playlist

How about some happy uplifting tunes for the office, create a positivity playlist and use it for other days throughout the year too, not just Blue Monday. If retail stores can tap into emotions and manipulate us by playing music then, offices can too.

Motivational chat

Have a speaker come in for 20 mins and instead of the Monday morning meeting do something different, get your employees fired up more than they’ve ever been.

Remember some of them are feeling glum because they’ve failed their New Years resolutions, let them know that today is day one of all new beginnings and everything is possible!

Fruit smoothies and ginger shots

Sometimes doughnuts work but not during January, after Christmas, many people don’t want a doughnut anywhere near them. Blue Monday requires a fruit smoothie bar to re-energise and give them the vitamins many people lack this time of year. For employees that need a hit let them throw back a ginger shot, they’ll instantly feel warm and happy while the ginger goes to work with all of its antioxidant compounds!

The perfect cure for Blue Monday.

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