Are You Suffering From the January Blue Mondays?

We know it sounds like a cliché, but feeling the ‘Blue Mondays’ of January is actually a real thing.

The festive season is way over and you’re starting to settle back into the dreary daily routine. Your focus is now on losing the car tire that has miraculously appeared around your waist and attempting to recover your damaged bank account. The skies outside are a persistent dull grey, and you begin to question your life as you drag yourself out of bed in the dark to make the angry traffic filled commute into work. Well if you’re feeling miserable, then know you’re not alone.

January is well known as the month of the year people feel most depressed.

The third Monday in January has now been officially labelled the ‘most depressing day of the year’ and the general population are Google searching the words ‘depression’ and ‘anxiety’ more times this month than any other time. It also happens to be the time of year that people are job searching more than any other.

We know from our 28 years in recruitment, January and February are really busy months for job searchers, spurred on by those blue Mondays. Did you know, people think about changing careers and roles over Christmas and the New Year period more than any other time? Online job boards see an influx of people uploading their CV’s and searching for roles during the first few weeks of the New Year. The number of people submitting job applications peaks significantly in January and in reaction, so does the number of jobs that become available. Many companies use January and February as the months to recruit new people for the year ahead.

So, in other words, there isn’t a better time for you to be helping yourself through these miserable Mondays and looking for a new job or new challenge. One that will make those Monday’s not quite so miserable. We are striving to see blue Monday’s as a motivator rather than a depressor; to welcome new beginnings and to embrace change.

If you need a helping hand to do the same, get in touch and let us help you use those blues as inspiration to finding that Monday morning smile!