The Sunday Scaries aren't anxiety. They’re data.
For years, my Sunday routine included a scheduled survival call.
My work BFF and I — both high-performers, both deep in the trenches of a corporate machine — would get on the phone to talk each other off the ledge. We called it managing the “Sunday Scaries,” but looking back, we were doing something else.
We were validating reality in a place designed to distort it.
We were working in an environment that loved to use the word “Family” while operating with the “Greed is Good” mechanics of 1980s Wall Street. It was a machine that didn’t build; it consumed. It acquired smaller firms, absorbed their resources, and churned through talent with a turnover rate that would sink a normal business.
But the machine didn’t care. It just needed fuel.
If you are feeling that dread in the pit of your stomach today, I want you to know something: It’s not you.
The Sunday Scaries are often treated as a “mindset issue,” like something you should meditate, meal-prep, or journal your way out of. But in my experience as an HR consultant (and a survivor of toxic workplaces), that dread is usually your body recognizing a pattern that your brain is trying to rationalize.
It’s your body reacting to:
The “Middleman” Leader: Managers who lack the technical skills to do the work, so they justify their existence by policing your metrics and gaslighting you about your “Unlimited” PTO.
The “Family” Mask: The cognitive dissonance of being told you are loved by an organization that views you as a line item to be exhausted and replaced.
The Competence Tax: The realization that the better you perform, the bigger the target on your back becomes for insecure leadership.
If you are staring down the barrel of Monday with a knot in your stomach, stop trying to “fix” your mindset. Instead, look at the data your body is sending you.
You aren’t crazy. You aren’t “not resilient enough.” You might just be a human trying to survive inside a machine.
Let’s say the quiet part out loud: Resilience shouldn’t mean enduring toxicity without flinching.
So, for this Sunday, grab your favorite person — that one person who sees the reality clearly — and remind each other of what is real. Steady the ship for yourself today. We’ll work on rebuilding the rest tomorrow.
