"Sunday scaries" getting worse? Blame COVID — and capitalism

I began to notice my own dread about six months into the pandemic — a sweeping sense of resistance to the start of a new week. It was a far more intense feeling than I’d experienced previously. As a practicing psychotherapist, of course I wanted to figure out why this was happening. Even though I’d eliminated the headache of a commute and expensive office rent, I headed toward Mondays feeling exhausted. Which is when it clicked. I was feeling existential dread because of the way the pandemic has blended our sense of time. We have no sense of forward movement, and that’s impacting us emotionally…

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Divorced from their primary function, weekends feel at best like empty rituals. At worst, they’ve become just another work day. In fact, the Society of Human Resource Management reported in December that close to 70 percent of professionals who began to work remotely in the pandemic are now also working during weekend hours.

Kaycie Belangeri, a third grade teacher in the San Bernardino City Unified School District, embodies the many millions of Americans who now find it almost impossible to take breaks from work — even if they’re not working weekend shifts.

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