Anyone else get ‘the fear’ on a Sunday about going back to work?

[DoreenSamuel]

I do like my job but get that sinking feeling on a Sunday afternoon about having to go into work the next day.

It’s always fine once I’m there but I still get ‘the fear’

Anyone else or is it just me?

The fear lingers all weekend to be honest.

Stress was so bad on last week I created each night. Couldn’t face doing work over the weekend now have that dread, feel like a 14 year old who hasn’t done her homework.

I remember in my twenties hating the weekends beciase I wasn’t in work. Need to find that level of job satisfaction again😊

For me its genuinely just that I am a lazy shit and want to cry at getting up early every day 😂. Although after holidays it's worse and I dont sleep a wink - teacher

I absolutely love my job (secondary school teaching) and have been doing it for 22 years but still get this feeling. It’s not as bad if I’ve done some marking and got my head around what I’m teaching on Monday morning, but it’s always there. For a time, I didn’t work on a Monday and that was bloody amazing. Sunday nights were brilliant. I never got ‘Monday night fear’ at all.

I've had 2 weeks if holidays and it's been bloody great, just suiting myself. The thought of going back to work fills me with anxiety and dread, not because I hate my job, but because it's giving up my freedom again and fitting in with everyone else.

Used to feel like this occasionally when working for the NHS. Depended which ward I was on.Lots of NHS staff at my hospital were utterly rude, cliquey and just not nice to work with and some were completely unsuited to nursing as they were like that with patients too.
So when I knew I was going back to work after sahm I set up my own business.

Working somewhere that is run well and you get on with everyone is worth more than anything and life is too short to feel dread on a Sunday night, so I would advise anyone feeling like this to look at moving job. Not that you can guarantee that jumping ship won't put you in the same position, it is so hard to know what to do, so can empathise.

If you all hate your jobs so much, why are you staying there?

It’s the Antiques Roadshow theme tune that sets me off

I've just started working in a care home (3 weeks in). I have never experienced this before but am getting it in buckets - I DREAD going to work.

@Forestwitch Because changing jobs is not necessarily as simple as you might imagine. And we have bills to pay.

For example, my job is quite specialised and there are few employers in this region. And very few jobs. There are also very few reasonably paid alternatives in this region, and they pretty much all require some sort of professional qualification really (plus experience). I can't move for family reasons, and I can't commute long distances (for both health and family reasons) so I'm stuck with what's available here.

I am going to have to figure out something else to do because I cannot continue where I am. Moving to a different employer in the same role would be an improvement but I'd still be miserable because I hate working in this sector.

If you all hate your jobs so much, why are you staying there

For me it wasn’t about changing jobs it was about changing my life.

I worked in an office.

I changed jobs but was still working in an office.

It was the actual office environment that made me so depressed.

I am self employed. I probably put on more hours but it is hours at my choosing
I don’t have to be somewhere at 9am and I don’t have to stay in that building till 5pm

I can start work at 9.25, and stop at midday if I want to.
Or I can start at 11am and go through till 2am. I don’t have to watch the clock and I can never be late.
It is hard work but far more relaxing

@Forestwitch quite a few people on the thread are explaining it’s not always about “hating” a job. I know when I used to get it, I quite liked my job, it was a great role. But I still got The Fear.

I hated my last job and I font remember getting the Fear. My new job is miles better but very disorganised and I feel like a newbie even 4 months in.,(part time).. So because I'm learning on the job with very little training I'm nervous going in, in my last job, even though it was utterly toxic, I knew the job inside out and never got nervous.

I don't understand this either. If you don't want to go, then don't.
I know some people have to work for financial reasons, but most dual income couples, just do it because it's expected.
Why do it, especially if a full salary is going on childcare and cleaners?

@Drabarni, full marks for the most ridiculous comment of the week.

You'll let me know where to find that magic money tree @Drabani

a long time ago i did, but for the last 6 years i've had a job i like and it's fine!

Yes. Sunday is one of two days off I get per week and I hate them. I spent all day preparing for bloody work 😞

I used to hate my job - I know do something g completely different which I love but still get Sunday night flashbacks to “the fear” of old job. Weirdly had a nightmare last night that I had to go back and work there again 😳

*now not Know 🙄 clearly my new job isn’t spelling related 🤣

clouds
You can have a cutting from our 18k a year money tree if you're hard up. .
That's what we are prepared to work, because time and living life is important to us.

When I started in my first career, I got the Sunday night dread even though I enjoyed the job and worked with incredible colleagues who became lifelong friends. Then slowly I started to wish for minor disasters - heavy snowfall, the school heating system breaking and a day off... Then circumstances changed and I started wondering how bad a car crash i would need to have on the drive in to injure myself enough to be off work a few months but not sustain permanent damage. Then those thoughts kept creeping in, more and more intrusive. The last Sunday evening that I had the dread, I talked myself into work that Monday morning and was fine. Told myself how silly I was being. But on the Tuesday morning I had a panic attack on the way to the car and I never went back to that workplace again.

Why didn’t I leave sooner? We were dependent on my salary to pay the mortgage and dependent on my hours to not have to need any childcare.

Now I am self employed in the career I’ve dreamed of since I was a little girl and I set my own hours. I love Sunday evenings; getting the uniforms and lunches ready and then luxuriating in Monday mornings when I can have breakfast with my children and read to them before school when I can then take myself off for a swim.

I’m so grateful for the life I have now and an end to that awful Sunday feeling. It’s ok when it’s a mild response to just missing the freedom of the weekend but if it intensifies into something darker and more serious, it definitely highlights a deeper problem. I know how trapped a person can feel in it though and how there can seem to be no way out of it.

drabarni your comment just made me laugh. What world are you living in?! Do you not realise that most people’s circumstances don’t allow them just to give up work?! I used to LOVE my old job and genuinely looked forward to going to work on Monday and after a holiday. Changed jobs in August and have had the Sunday fear since then. But it is mainly because I am still settling in and have found the transition quite stressful. I am hopeful I will end up not minding it in the end and that feeling will subside. It has got less bad as time is passing. Part of the fear is also having to get up so early and go out in the cold. That doesn’t help!

No never - but I work on a random shift pattern not Monday-Friday! Very lucky. Can’t imagine having to work 5 days with just 2 days off... it’s no wonder the Sunday evening feeling is so real for a lot of people.

I have always had this....,no sooner do I get the TGIF feeling then it seems the Monday dread kicks in... retiring in a few weeks and after 50 years I bet it takes a while to go!!

I'm a freelancer, often work weekends to catch up with myself, and even when I'm working on a Sunday evening I still get the fear! I think its lingering from when I used to have a commute of 90 mins in the car each way. Monday mornings always had the worst traffic and accidents. It also used to mean a 3 hour morning meeting which ended with a motivational video which made me want to puke everytime.