The Teaching and Learning Innovation Digest - May 2023

Mondays”. Bare Minimum Mondays consist
of taking it easy on the first day of the week
as most people hate Mondays because it’s
easy to get stressed out with everything that
needs to be completed for the week. But, Bare
Minimum Mondays tries to eliminate feelings
of being overwhelmed or stressed by things
like avoiding multitasking, taking more breaks,
taking it slow for the first two hours, and not
completing everything on your to-do list,
if possible.
People aged 10-19 years old make up 25
per cent of TikTok users, meaning that future
industry professionals are consuming this
content. I just entered the workplace in my field
and I wouldn’t be in the position I am in now if I
followed this trend. It’s similar to a concept we
had before called Quiet Quitting which means
to only complete the bare minimum that’s
required for your job. I believe that people who
put in hard work will see progress and growth
in their field.
Terms similar to Bare Minimum Mondays.
• Quiet Quitting
• Phoning it in
• Soft Quitting
• Work-to-Rule
I also read an article about a four-day work
week and the results made me change my
outlook on my original idea that you have
to overwork for success. Britain tested
a four-day work week in selected
companies. 61 companies that participated in
the trial are keeping the four-day work week
structure moving forward. The four-day work
week consists of employees working for four
days and having three days off instead of the
usual two-day weekend. The outcome of the
trial showed percentages that showed progress
towards “work less, get more” (2023).
The four-day week trial in Britain found that
71 per cent of people felt less burned out,
39 per cent felt less stressed, and 48 per
cent felt more satisfied with their job than
before the four-day week trial. 73 per cent of
people reported an increase in satisfaction
with their lives. Workers were “sleeping
more” and their mental health improved.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused work life
to change from jobs being on hold or having
jobs switch from in-person to remote. My work
switched to remote and I currently still am
working remote because I got accustomed to
the flexibility of working from home, just like
many Centennial faculty and staff continue to
even today. My transportation time took me
around an hour one way, so my usual routine
was I would get home, cook dinner, eat dinner,
and go to sleep. Now I have extra hours in my
day to spend time with family, working freelance,
or doing things around the house.
The four-day week article states, “the pandemic
changed the way the world works, with
people seeking greater flexibility to improve
work-life balance”. Employees don’t need to
overwork for a company to be successful.
Having a flexible and healthy work-life balance
can cause people to work efficiently consistently.
I think the pandemic really opened our eyes
about achieving a healthy work-life balance.
Overall, I’ll never stop working hard and trying
to do more with the company I’m working for,
but I won’t overwork myself in an unhealthy
way because I now know that this isn’t efficient
in the long run.
References and Additional Resources
Bonnell, C. (2023). Four-day Workweek Trial: Shorter Hours, Happier Employees. CP24.
https://www.cp24.com/lifestyle/four-day-workweek-trial-shorter-hours-happieremployees-1.6282769
Carmichael, S. (2015). The Research is Clear: Long Hours Backfire for People and for Companies.
Harvard Business. https://hbr.org/2015/08/the-research-is-clear-long-hours-backfire-for-peopleand-for-companies
Chan, W. (2022). Elon Musk praises Chinese workers for ‘burning the 3am oil’ - here’s what that
really looks like. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/may/12/elonmusk-praises-chinese-workers-for-extreme-work-culture
Lanlan, H. and Xiaoyi, L. (2021). Big Tech dilemma: Overwork culture ‘still needed’. Global Times.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1212018.shtml
Olive, D. (2023). Is a four-day workweek inevitable? It could certainly solve some of the worklife
balance problems facing women. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/business/
opinion/2023/03/08/a-four-day-week-could-solve-some-of-the-work-life-balance-problemsfacing-women.html?li_source=LI&li_medium=thestar_business
Thomas, H. (2023). Opinion: ‘Bare minimum Mondays’ are more than they appear to be. CNN.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/02/opinions/bare-minimum-mondays-tiktok-productivity-thomasctrp/index.html
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