Red dress, ‘Scooter Ride’: Companies help employees tackle the first day of the workweek

HR teams are experimenting with various interventions to ease the apprehension of employees.

It's been months since Jaipur-based Raghav Deopura has enjoyed his weekly off, Sunday. Not because he has been short of plans but because the recurring thought of returning to work on Monday was a dampener. This is what in some parts is called the ‘Sunday blues’ or 'Sunday scaries’. There are many such cases.

While there would be a good number of employees excited to resume their work on Mondays, there will be many, if not an equal number or more, who certainly do not look forward to the first day of the corporate week, thereby affecting productivity.

A 2019 study published by Lehigh University found that operations performance on Mondays is “worse than other weekdays”. Even social media is regularly flooded with memes and jokes about the ‘Monday blues’.

However, some companies in India are making efforts to help their employees tackle the Monday melancholia. To start the week on a positive and energised note, Canon India, for instance, has an initiative called ‘Red Hot Passion’ where everyone wears red to work on Monday. Symbolising the brand colour for Canon as well, red symbolises energy and the collective vibe of enthusiasm.

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Besides, in line with its ‘'Big Smile' campaign that aims to create positivity in the organisation, the imaging technology company has a ‘Good Morning Walk' initiative, where one team/department is assigned to walk through the entire office and greet every colleague with a smile.

“Together, these initiatives demonstrate our dedication to nurturing a workplace that values passion, energy and genuine human connections,” Shikha Rai, senior vice president and human resources head, Canon India, told Moneycontrol.

HR teams are experimenting with various interventions to ease the apprehension of employees. While real estate brokerage platform Homesfy avoids having review meetings on Mondays, gaming platform PlayerzPot schedules department meetings in the second half of the day.

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Another popular practice is to opt for a learning session instead of just working. At non-banking financial company SmartCoin, there is ‘Scooter Ride’, a specific time for employees to vote and choose a topic they would like to gain some knowledge on, after which an in-house expert conducts a learning session.

“The outcome is that people feel much more productive and refreshed, pumped to start their week with new gusto!” said Garima Bhandari, CHRO at SmartCoin.