Though Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats had their biggest hit with “I Don’t Like Mondays” (see video at the base of this post as, well, it is a great pop song!), I don’t agree.
I recognise my privilege that I have work that had me quite literally bounce out of bed before my alarm, raring to go for the work week ahead. I love Mondays!
I take that back, sometimes we can all simply choose to appreciate Monday mornings. As I went downstairs and put my coffee on, the “bin men” (refuse collectors in American English) did their usual Monday morning hustle down our street empty our many bins (our council area are great at this, we have FIVE different bins and they collect them in rotation). The sun was out on a cold winter day and they were joking and laughing as they went.
I then noticed that they had switched out one of my bins for one of a different colour and I thought that, in their rush, they might have got their bins mixed up, so I went to my front door and called out to get their attention. One of them turned around and, in Jamaican patois, smiled and explained that they were giving me a new bin (to be fair, the old one had a broken lid for a while). As soon as he explained, he must have thought “hey, I’d better explain in clearer English” and began to do so, yet I had understood him so I called out in my own “sort of” patois to thank him. Cue an even more massive smile on his face at meeting a fellow Caribbean soul!
We all can choose our attitude to our work at any time and we can also do more as leaders to support the people in our business or organisation in their life and work. The smile on the bin man’s face took me back to Chip Conley’s book “Peak“, where he tells his story about saving his hotel company, Joie de Vivre (“joy of life”!). I recall an opening story in the book where he arrived at one of the hotels despondent and down, only to come across one of his housekeepers full of smiles and song. She had joy and purpose and fulfilment in her work even though it was hard and at a low wage, so not only was he to be despondent but also his curious mind looked at why she was happy and what he could do to engender that throughout the business.
So, on this Monday morning, do you love Mondays, or are you like Bob Geldof?