The Sunday scaries are real, and they’re getting worse (opens the source in a new tab)
- More than half of US workers say they feel pre-Monday dread, a FlexJobs survey finds, with an unfinished to-do list the most common trigger; Merriam-Webster added “Sunday scaries” to its online dictionary last month.
- Workforce analytics data compiled for the WSJ show the share of Sundays spent on work messages and chats nearly doubled from 2023 to last year, as workloads grow and job security fades.
- Coping tactics include capping Sunday work with an hour-long hourglass, finishing more on Friday, setting firm limits, or reframing the dread as “Monday maybe”.
- Over 50%
- of US workers feel the dread
- ~2×
- Sunday work chats vs 2023
Why it matters Work creeping into Sunday is a symptom: when job security weakens, people trade rest for reassurance, and burnout follows.
Other side A short, bounded Sunday planning session can ease Monday stress, as a psychiatrist in the piece notes; the problem is open-ended work, not all of it.