Jill Davis is the chief development officer at a nonprofit, which means she runs its fundraising. By Sunday afternoon, every week, her mind is already at Monday's desk. She used to fight the nerves by drafting emails she wouldn't send until Monday. Now she has a $30 hourglass. The sand takes an hour to run through. That hour is the most work, or worry about work, she allows herself on a Sunday. One recent Sunday the sand ran out, and she got up and left the room.
Ray A. Smith told her story on Monday's front page. Merriam-Webster added the Sunday scaries to its online dictionary in September. More than half of U.S. workers say they get them, in an October FlexJobs survey of 2,100 people. The most common cause is a list of unfinished tasks. The habit is growing. Workers spent about 12% of their Sundays on work chat and messaging last year. In 2023 it was 6.6%. That's ActivTrak data from 336 companies, compiled for the Journal, and it covers monitored devices only.
The people in the story aren't slackers. Joanna Johnston spent years as a tech executive. She used to get up at 6 a.m. on Sundays for an hour of Monday prep. She admits she messaged her own team on weekends before she saw what it cost them. She retired from corporate roles in June and now coaches executives. She still works Sundays. "I think I just have a problem," she told the Journal, laughing. Chris Keller is the marketing chief at a credit union. He used to run his own agency seven days a week. Now he gives himself two hours early Sunday morning and no more.
The hour has to pay
The experts in the piece split. Kia-Rai Prewitt, a Cleveland Clinic psychiatrist, says a little Sunday work is fine if you set a guardrail. Answer the one email and stop. Amy Cooper Hakim, a workplace psychologist, says move the same minutes to Friday afternoon or early Monday. Angie Callen, an executive coach, wrote a book about the scaries. Her test is simple. Ask whether the Sunday hour earns a positive return on your time. "We let Mondays ruin our Sundays," she says. Davis went one step further. A coach helped her rename the Sunday scaries the Monday maybe. She says she sleeps better.
Our read
This is Career and Behavioral. Time off is a resource, like money, and Davis budgets it with an hourglass. We like the method. One hour, then the other room. Callen's test is the right money test too. Ask whether the hour earns a return. For the business owners who read us, Johnston's admission is the honest one. A Sunday message to staff has a cost that never shows on the books. If you run a team, the weekend text you send sets the weekend your people get.
Here's where the story touches your own plan. Callen says people grind on Sundays because they're scared of getting fired. A lot of that fear is money fear, and the part of your plan built for it is the emergency fund. This week, open the savings account and count how many months of bills it would cover. Three to six months is the usual rule of thumb. If you're under three, that's the thing to fix before the next Sunday. A full fund is what turns a scary Monday into a maybe. You find the umbrella while the sky is still dry, and you count the cash before anyone mentions layoffs.