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Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc. | |
PRODUCTIVITY
Shaking the Monday blues
By reshaping the the rhythm of the workweek, AI is helping people begin the week with less stress and anxiety
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MAYBE YOU REALLY don’t like AI. Maybe you think it’s got your boss itching to eliminate your job, or maybe you’re just annoyed at reading the endless text clearly rammed through ChatGPT. You may not hate this though: AI might be able to cure the Sunday Scaries and the Monday Blues.
That suggestion comes courtesy of the firm Read AI, a company offering meeting summary and insight tools, which wanted to find out how AI was shifting the patterns of the workweek and how people were feeling on each day. Looking at over 5 million meetings, data indicated that Tuesdays account for 22 per cent of all meetings, with Thursdays close behind, suggesting “employees are reclaiming Mondays and Fridays for focused work.”
But perhaps the most headline-worthy finding was a marked improvement in overall sentiment on Mondays, particularly for workers who made routine use of AI as a personal assistant tool.
“In the past year, Monday blues have lessened as workers who adopt AI start the week with clarity and momentum,” they wrote, finding that “AI-empowered teams are nearly two times more likely to feel productive at the start of the week, and six times more likely to start the week with clarity and focus compared to those without AI support.”
Their reasoning here is that workers who would have otherwise come in on Monday and had to start their week by planning out meetings, organizing files and generally doing more administrative tasks to get ready for the week can now offload much of that to an AI personal assistant, and hit the ground running. “Adjusting the rhythm of the workweek often transformed low-productivity Mondays into one of its most effective days for workers who use AI,” wrote Inc.com.
It makes sense. Swinging into action enthusiastically on a Monday has long been a piece of advice for those battling the Monday blues. What Read AI’s research suggests is that AI assistants are helping people achieve that. “Frequent AI users report almost double the satisfaction with their start-of-week flow, compared to others,” they wrote, adding that data indicated demand for access to AI tools was particularly strong for workers who felt time-pressed.
“There is huge potential for AI to step in as a personal assistant and work companion, helping workers reclaim their time, reduce stress and officially put the ‘Monday blues’ to rest,” Read AI said. “It’s for every worker who deserves more time, less stress and a better Monday.”
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CAREERS
Not just for executives anymore
Everyday workers are hiring EAs to balance work, home and ever-crazier schedules
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IF YOU READ the story above about workers finding themselves feeling refreshed and ready to hit the ground running on Mondays thanks to their AI assistants, but you’re still feeling a bit squishy about AI in general, then what about hiring your own human assistant, with flesh and bones and everything?
In our time-pressed, pressure-heavy world of work, hiring an executive assistant is no longer just for the C-Suite, according to Callum Borchers of The Wall Street Journal. “Some regular folks like me have decided not to let titles, or lack thereof, stop them from having executive assistants,” he wrote detailing how a rising trend in white-collar work has seen people willing to shell out real dollars for a bit of administrative help. “They see it as an investment that can pay for itself in increased productivity and earnings, and a testament to the modern habit of overscheduling ourselves. They also say it’s worth every penny and makes them feel like bosses.”
It is an easy sales pitch. Sundays, one of the leading executive assistant services, aims directly at working parents, promising to “help every parent thrive — at work, home and everywhere in between,” and to “help our clients spend their time where it is most valuable, both at home and at work.”
My, how far we’ve come. Just a year or so ago, hired help was a bit of a taboo in the work world, with Business Insider investigating “shadow stand-ins” and revealing the rise of secret job outsourcing. Now, with pressure on workers seemingly felt from all angles, it’s talked about as smart business, and a perk to be enjoyed by all. “This new brand of EA is marketed directly to rank-and-file workers for as few as five hours a month,” Borchers wrote.
Still, some are feeling a little sketchy about the practice — particularly companies which now have to wonder who, exactly, is looking at company information. If there is a strong case to be made against the democratization of EAs, that might be it.
“There are legal ramifications associated with non-employees having access to company information,” wrote Inc.com’s Suzanne Lucas. But, she says, it is time for companies to take that risk seriously.
“You may think it’s overkill, and no one is doing this. But they are, and the numbers will increase,” she said. “As soon as one gains the power to organize your employee’s work, they have the power to destroy work as well.”
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Terry Talk: The cost of loyalty — leadership lessons from letting go
| In this Terry Talk, discover how one leader’s painful decision to part ways with the wrong hire became the turning point for renewed energy, vision and results. A candid reflection on the hidden costs of holding on — and the power of choosing change. | | | |
TRAVEL & TOURISM
Up, up and away
Canadian tourists may be taking a big step back from the U.S., but corporate travel appears to be business as usual
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AT AN INDUSTRY conference last week, United Airlines CFO Mike Leskinen surprised when he said business travel had made a sudden rebound in 2025, perhaps mirroring a rebound in in-office work. “It was like a light switch, [in] late July, early August,” he said. “Bookings are really strong, particularly corporate, going into the fourth quarter.”
It doesn’t seem like an anomaly. Alaska Airlines backed that up this week, saying that they saw a sharp uptick in corporate travel in the third quarter of this year. Delta Airlines president Glen Hauenstein also told a conference that “people are back in the office. The country is open for business.”
Surprisingly, given our still-high WFH rates and the political climate, Canadian corporate travel, including to the United States, is also strong. A recent report from the Canadian Press found that corporate travel was “business as usual,” with over 80 per cent of Canadian corporate travel destined for the U.S.
“Despite the political tension and the economic uncertanties right now between Canada the U.S., the U.S. remains to be an absolutely critical partner with the majority of Canadian businesses,” said SAP Concur Canada’s managing director Brial Veloso. Canada is also the number one travel destination from the U.S., and the fourth most popular destination internationally.
That’s a somewhat eyebrow-raising finding, given the rhetoric and anxiety around cross-border trips right now. What travel industry folks think is that companies aren’t cutting travel as much as they are doing more to prepare for it; immigration lawyer Beth Nanton said that there’s been a noted increase in companies looking for legal guidance on work trips. But Canadian companies, still attempting to navigate tricky cross-border business, are continuing to prioritize corporate travel to the U.S.
“Many of our clients have head offices, partners or major clients in the U.S.,” said Danielle Riddle, CEO of corporate travel services firm Inspired Travel Group. “So those trips, they’re not going away.”
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TRENDS
The hottest place to network
Tired of networking events that revolve around drinking or eating, some folks are taking it inside a steamy 200-degree box
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THERE ARE MANY things to dislike about traditional networking events. One of the big ones is the setting: a cocktail bar, with music that’s maybe a bit too loud, drinks that will set you back twenty bucks and nowhere to sit down. Maybe next time you’d like to take a little Finnish inspiration, and move it to a hot sauna?
As wellness and work continue to overlap in new ways, sweaty networking is a rising trend among Silicon Valley tech execs and young, urban professionals alike.
On the wellness side, we’ve seen the rise of sauna and cold plunge businesses, even here in London, and as those places catch on, corporate types are moving the business of networking into the heat. “It’s not uncommon for business types to take meetings in the sauna, or for companies to organize a team-wide cold plunge,” observed The Wall Street Journal’s Sam Schude.
In Finland, world capital of sauna culture, it’s long been the case that the sauna plays a significant role in business culture. “Sauna is the symbol of trust and equality, as everyone who enters is stripped into their bare minimum,” wrote Business Finland. “Everyone enters the space equally — the sauna knows no egos, building on shared agreement of trust and egalitarianism. Very similarly, trust and transparency have become central to Finnish business culture.” (Maybe no surprise, then, that Finland routinely ranks as having one of the least corrupt business and political cultures on the globe.)
So, what is it about a communal steam session that boosts professional connection so effortlessly? Once participants get over the initial novelty, and the distraction of bathrobes, bathing suits and body parts, adopters say it offers employees and founders an opportunity to connect beyond standard alcohol-fuelled networking events.
The sauna is just one example of how business professionals are changing the way they network these days. Fewer dinners, less liquor, more sweat and higher heart rates. “VCs socialize a lot,” said investor Helene Servillion. “If we only have two options — have a drink or a meal — that can just get really exhausting.”
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