A TikTok trend called #BareMinimumMondays has outraged and divided the internet and yet it is growing more and more attraction. What is it? Does it reflect something broader for women in the workplace?
The term was coined by American TikTok user Marissa Jo who claimed that by doing the absolute bare minimum every Monday she can prevent burnout and reject toxic hustle culture.
The crux of the trend is that employees are encouraged to prioritise their mental health on Monday to prepare for their professional responsibilities for the rest of the week. This means that Monday is the day chosen to work from home without scheduling any meetings and instead limiting the day to complete just three essential tasks.
Jo claims in turn she is more productive and efficient overall. By creating a softer working environment, the pressure to achieve unrealistic standards is dramatically reduced while also maintaining overall weekly productivity.
Many (mostly) women have taken to this trend by filming TikToks of their #bareminimummondays and claiming it helps them ‘ease into the week ahead’. It allows them to walk the dog, meal prep, and catch up on chores which were not able to be completed over the weekend.
Adelaide based marketing manager Caitlin Winter has introduced the trend into her workplace and believes that “it’s been one of the best decisions she has made as a boss” she told news.com.au.
“A lot of people think it means I sit in my PJs all day in front of the TV and do no work. But in reality, it is simply a day where we work from home, don’t schedule any meetings and generally treat ourselves with a little more space and kindness to set up for a productive week ahead”, she said.
“For one member of my team, it means being able to drop off and pick up her kids from school which she is unable to do during the week”, Winter shared.
It is fair to say that the media has taken a unanimous stance on this. Most outlets claim it represents a “lazy” and “entitled” new generation in the workforce.
However, the trend clearly represents a push for radical change in working conditions. More flexible schedules such as the “four-day work week” and a hybrid working environment have come to the forefront of debate in this post pandemic era, and trends like this prove a larger societal push away from the traditional nine to five office routine.
There is also another side to this story: Women are drawn to flexible working practices as a response to the disproportionate amount of unpaid work they currently take on.
Unpaid work includes all domestic duties such as housework, childcare, food preparation, shopping and caring for the elderly, family pets and schedules. This is without recognising the unpaid emotional labour which also overwhelmingly falls on women.
All these tasks highlighted by Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency, demonstrate that women bear the heaviest burden of unpaid care, thus reducing their participation in the workforce and limiting their opportunity for career progression.
Women on average spend 64.4% of their weeks’ working time on unpaid care work compared to 36.1% for men. This means each day for every hour Australian men commit to unpaid work, Australian women commit one hour and 48 minutes.
It’s an exhausting story, endlessly discussed.
From the overwhelming reaction to the trend of #BareMinimumMondays, it is clear that maybe the answer is in re-shifting our perception of what “work” is, and recognising the essential social and economic contribution of unpaid labour to the wellbeing of our society.
Allowing reasonable time each week for domestic labour, child-rearing and caring for others should be valued as much as traditional paid work. Perhaps bare minimum Mondays aren’t really the bare minimum at all…