Have you ever woke up and thought that the highlight of the next 24 hours was likely a dump you were going to take in the afternoon sometime?  I know that’s a pretty disgusting thought, but I am faced with this reality more often than I’d like to admit.  I know my life should be rewarding, but let’s look at this in a bit more detail.  Before I start I must state that this isn’t unique to my current employment and I think that if you work in an office you might feel the same way too.

I’ll admit this tends to happen more frequently on Mondays.  After a weekend of ridiculousness I’m usually tired, so I struggle to shake out the cobwebs and head into the office.  I get to the office and it being Monday I sort through the emails that trickled in after I left on Friday.  Most of the time it’s someone saying they’ll have a look, at whatever it is I sent them, sometime this week.  So really none of those items get completed and I delete the email because a note saying “I’ll try to get you something this week” is about as useful as I feel at that precise moment.  I get back into Friday afternoon’s activity which likely is held up by the emails I just spoke about so that wastes all of eight minutes.  Eventually, likely an hour after the day has started, I find a new task I can work on.  I get twenty or so minutes into it and discover I need to send someone an email because they need to do something for me.  I send the email, they have an emergency they are dealing with (I’m sure the world is ending), so I expect nothing until at least Tuesday.  Suddenly the panicky person in the office shows up with an “emergency” that takes me all of five minutes to solve.  I’m lauded as a hero because I can actually read instructions and come up with a solution without breaking into a cold sweat.  I feel no sense of accomplishment and return to the cat and mouse game that is starting and stopping activities while waiting for emails that may provide incremental progress on an incredibly simple problem.  It’s about eleven now so it’s time to get water, maybe some gum, read the postings on the intranet and accept the incoming meeting requests.  I look over what I need to know for the meetings, as I am stuck on all my other projects, and suddenly it’s noon.  I head out to get some lunch, I eat it, read a newspaper (which in Regina is extremely disappointing), walk around aimlessly, and head back to the office.  Likely it is time to head to one of those meeting requests I accepted, so I grab some paper and a pen and I’m off.  I doodle many valuable images in the margin of my page and capture the five minutes of necessary conversation where appropriate.  Without describing any details the highlight of the day occurs – cha-ching.  Back to work where I have a new problem that needs to be solved, so I work away at that new task.  Again I get to a point and compose yet another email.  About three it’s time to head down for a coffee, which for me is anything but coffee.  Most of the time someone brings up one of the faux pas topics of religion, politics, or gay rights and the conversation spirals to its death.  On that note coffee ends abruptly and it’s back to work.  Miraculously, while I was away, someone gets back to me with some information.  I dig in for the rest of the day and finally make some progress on something.  As an aside I do accomplish things at work, but Mondays don’t tend to be particularly valuable.

So other than the dump where’s the highlight?  There’s nothing notable there, and none of the activities provide the relief that a dump does.  Therefore I’m proposing we call Mondays – Dump Day.  It’s not classy and maybe I’m the only one who would even consider this, but it had to be said.  I hope that the next time we chat on the phone on a Monday that you end our conversation with “I hope you enjoy the rest of your dump day”.  I will appreciate it and hope that it propagates around the globe.  I’m curious how to say dump day in other languages