Blue Monday is a Stunt. Like Tech Itself
You’ve probably heard of Blue Monday (not the New Order song, Matt Berninger). It’s the most depressing day of the year, falling (as it always does) on the third Monday of January.
Most people ramp up their mindfulness app and raw dog it into work. “Lift your spirits, guys” says your micro-aggression filled boss. It’s fine, fine. We’ll deal with the fallout from this another time, including bought-in-haste airline tickets.
The thing is. It’s a lie. Way back in 2005 a travel company wanted to promote their winter getaways, and got a psychologist to “prove” everyone was at their lowest point in January. Marketing celebrated, and most people moved on.
Why Fake Feels So Real
Even though Blue Monday is fictional, the feeling it names isn’t. January is brutal, with short days and even shorter tempers. The holidays are over, your credit card bill looks like a horror story, and it’s performance review season. You’re back at work (or worse, still at the same job you promised yourself you’d quit last year). There’s no long weekend in sight.
As soon as you’re back at work your manager asks why a ticket isn’t moving. Quickly you’re into the same spiral down to the bottom.
It’s Worse in Tech
If you work in tech, it’s worse. You probably coasted through December doing bug-fixes and enjoying the quiet. Now you’re back, and it’s like someone cranked the Agile treadmill to “death march” speed.
Ceremonies are back. Roadmaps are in. PI planning returns. It’s all longer and more frequent than ever. An OKR with a Q1 deadline?
It’s all stacking up. There isn’t anything you can do about it, it’s going to wash over you anyway and build up to a ball of stress you need to unwind during the next holiday.
I’m looking down the barrel of takeover, cost cutting and efficiencies. Other companies will be looking to cut costs (that’s heads then), straight laying off staff or doing the annual gaslighting review cycle where they tell you you’re “not quite exceeding expectations” while quietly planning your redundancy.
Blue Monday represents that very real phenomenon. A burnout culture that requires us to run like machines even when we’re low on sleep, vitamin D, and motivation.
The Real Fix
I’ve no free days for a discount vacation. My antidote simply cannot be a Caribbean holiday.
I need a real fix, and if you’ve read this blog for any sort of time you’ll know what it is.
The system needs to value recovery. It needs to respect human rhythms and sleep patterns. It needs to respect people and how they live, breathe and work.
And you know what it isn’t. It’s a pointless standup at 9 a.m. the Monday after a two-week break.
“can I have an update on this ticket? Oh, nothing happened, that’s ok it was Christmas hahahahaah”
About The Author
Professional Software Developer “The Secret Developer” can be found on Twitter @TheSDeveloper.
The Secret Developer once had a job with “unlimited holiday”. They took less holiday than when given ten days.