How to cure a bad case of Monday-itis

If you listen carefully at 7am on a Monday morning, you will hear the collective groan of thousands of people from across the city as they shuffle out of bed, into their shoes and onto the next available train. Packed together like a tin of sardines on the morning commute, everyone is feeling groggy, under-caffeinated and in a state of shock about how quickly the weekend flew by.

Monday mornings; they're just the worst, but what if they didn't have to be? We've rounded up a few ideas to help your team to get excited to start the working week and relieve even the worst case of Monday-itis.

Encourage Flexibility

We're extending beyond the notion of offering flexible working hours, we're talking about actually getting your staff out from under their desks and into a Lotus position. According to a recent Gallup Poll, 80% of people feel stress on the job, and nearly 40% say they need help in managing stress. Corporate Yoga is a service aimed at de-stressing people in the corporate world through squeezing in a few Shavasanas in between your 9 o'clock meeting and your 11:30 conference call.

A qualified instructor can turn your boardroom into a makeshift yoga studio, offering your employees a space to unwind and learn helpful tips on stress reduction. What an excellent way to start the working week!

Praise your People

As a manager, it can be hard to keep tabs on exactly who is doing what, or how many people a task has gone through in order to make its way to your desk. Of course you'd like to be able to acknowledge everyone's efforts, but how? Like most things these days, there's an app for that!

Redii is an online service providing peer-to-peer connections; enabling staff members to be recognised for going that extra mile. Your team can accumulate 'recognition points' from people within your organisation and trade them in for tangible rewards such as: experiences, vouchers or travel opportunities. Why wouldn't you want to turn up to work every day with a system like this in place?

You can read our Q&A with Redii Founder, Naomi Simson, here.

Call in the professionals

If you're serious about shifting your workplace culture towards loving Monday mornings, then why not look into getting some expert advice? Jill Arkell, of AltusQ is one of the creative team behind the Thank God It's Monday (TGIM) six-year research project aimed at uncovering just what it takes to create great businesses that people love to work for.

AltusQ's research found that employee engagement is currently at crisis level, costing Australia $33 billion. They discovered that when Australian employees perceived their leaders as being effective, 72% were highly engaged, with only 3% feeling disengaged. Where employees perceived their leaders as being ineffective, just 8% of these employees reported feeling highly engaged, with the majority (56%) left feeling disengaged.

You can find out more about AltusQ's services here.

Bring your team together for a good cause

You can keep your team's engagement and productivity on the rise by getting them out of the office and bringing them together for a good cause. The Wayside Chapel, located in Kings Cross, offers corporate volunteer sessions where your team can learn more about how the charity works, discuss the effects of mental health, homelessness and drug and alcohol abuse and volunteer its services to prepare lunch for the Wayside community.

This is an excellent way to not only engage your team members with each other, but to also engage them with the wider community.

Wayside Community Lunch