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Monday, Monday, can't trust that day
Weekends exhaust younger workers
Monday, September 05, 2005
Henry J. Gomez
Plain Dealer Reporter
Popular culture has pegged Monday as the day dreaded more than any of the week's other six.
To the Bangles, it was "just another manic Monday." In the 1999 cult-hit flick "Office Space," cubicle-bound workers suffered from a chronic "case of the Mondays." And look no further than Tremont's La Tortilla Feliz or many of the eateries in Little Italy to see that some don't even bother.
Neeko Crider has no choice. The 24-year-old systems analyst for Brecksville's Noveon Inc. drags herself out of bed every Monday with a tired nod to a weekend too short.
"I usually want to throw my alarm clock out the window," she said.
According to the recent Great American Weekend survey commissioned by Life magazine, 51 percent of 18-to-24- year olds are more exhausted than they are recharged after the weekend.
You can bet that on this, the end of a three-day Labor Day weekend for many, even the extra 24 hours are not enough. So, this week at least, it will be a case of the Tuesdays.
Like so many her age, Crider doesn't use her two- day respite to relax.
She uses it to party. To catch up on of fice work - not sleep - that she can't squeeze in during the week. To run er rands. To visit her parents, 80 miles away in Columbiana.
"Monday," Crider said, "is proba bly my slowest day."
Come Monday, according to the Life survey, 41 percent of those 18-to-24-year-olds are depressed to be back at work, an anxiety that begins to build Sunday eve ning. Conversely, 69 percent of those 55 and older approach the work week with a renewed sense of vigor.
"I think there are a few rea sons why," said Mark Adams, the Life editor who oversaw the survey. "Above and be yond, those happiest at work on Mondays were the ones making $100,000 or more a year. And there aren't many of those people in the 18-to-24 range."
Adams said Life, a weekend publication of Time Inc., com missioned the study after searching high and low for data to use in a trend story on weekend habits. Finding none, the magazine did its own survey of more than 1,000 adults, providing sta tistics to go along with the sluggish Monday- morning anecdotes that have been around for years.
The survey asked questions ranging from partici pants' willingness to move to France for a four-day workweek to whether they have better sex on the weekends.
Aside from the contrasting answers between men and women — and there were many — the differences were most noticeable between young and old. For example, the 18-to-24 crowd is twice as likely to bring work home on the weekends than the 55-and-older set.
"I do some work on weekends," Crider said. "I go out a lot downtown. Usually I just run errands. There's very little relaxing, but that's my own fault because I overbook myself."
Glenn McBride, author of "The 12-Hour Schedule Lifestyle" and a researcher of workplace habits, said most young professionals tend to be like Crider.
"They are simply too optimistic about how much time they really have,"McBride said.
Hannah Fritzman, a coordinator for the Cleveland Foundation's Executive Fellowship and Civic Innovation Lab programs, crams in even more. The 24-year-old has a part-time weekend gig as a street-team marketer for Clear Channel's WAKS FM/ 96.5, better known as KISS-FM. She said she makes a point to reserve Sunday for relaxing, but it's not always easy.
"The weekends are draining," Fritzman said. "I want to clean my place, get things done, see my friends and relax. Sunday night always comes too soon."
Between "partying on West Sixth Street or in Tremont" and squeezing in take-home work, 23-year-old Natalie Sobonya's usual weekend bedtime is 4 or 5 a.m., early Saturday and Sunday mornings. The development programs coordinator for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation said she's pleased with how she can balance weekend work and play — until Monday morning.
"It's difficult to be productive on Monday mornings because I still tend to be on a natural high from the weekend," she said. "I'm more tired on Mondays simply because my body gets used to waking up later on Saturday and Sunday and then has to readjust, come Monday."
That's not to say, however, that their elders are staying home all weekend.
Howard Cleveland, the 57-year-old chief creative officer at Cleveland information-technology firm Attevo, said he likes to go out on the weekends just as much as the twentysomethings do. But he knows his limits, and, come Monday, he feels fine.
"I'm more energized than I am on Wednesdays," Cleveland said. "On a Sunday night, I don't go blowing it out. It's dinner at home and 'Sopranos' on HBO."
Cleveland used to party harder, when he was younger, but "if you're an old guy and you party one night a weekend, it takes you two days to recover. When you get older, you get a better understanding of what you're capable of. I hate to say it, but pace yourself."
Another Howard, local businessman Howard Landau, said you must pace yourself to avoid bringing the office home on weekends. It's a skill that comes with settling down in life, said the 60-year-old president of Cleveland's Landau Public Relations.
"Whether you're a soccer mom or a CEO, you have a system," he said. "Age has nothing to do with it. It is experience in planning and organizing."
Landau said he tries to avoid out-of-office meetings on Mondays or Fridays, both of which he considers "deadline days." It's a routine that he said ensures he won't stress out on precious weekends spent relaxing with his wife or visiting friends.
But Cleveland and Landau know they can't expect the same Monday-morning energy out of their younger employees, who Cleveland said probably put more pressure on themselves than their bosses do. "They worry so much once the weeks start," Cleveland said.
"They're always stressed out. Maybe that's why they're partying so hard, I don't know."
Then again, you're only young once, and twentysomethings such as Crider, Fritzman and Sobonya are determined to get the most out of their relative youth. There will be plenty of time to settle down. And it's not like they're not getting in their share of fun on the weekends.
"Although some of my weekends are very busy, for the most part, I'm doi g what I want," Sobonya said. "So for me, that is relaxing in and of itself.
"I mean, shouldn't that be what weekends are all about anyway?"
Ask again Monday morning.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: hgomez@plaind.com, 216-999-5405
http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business/1125826493189101.xml&coll=2&thispage=3
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