I want to shoot the whole day down

Younger readers may not know Bob Geldof at all, or only as this weird guy who does all these charity appeals and fundraisers. But before he became a professional fundraiser, he was the singer of the Boomtown Rats whose greatest hit was “I don’t Like Mondays”.

45 years after it was released (yes, I was shocked about that too) this song still is the hymn of everyone who doesn’t like to go to work after the weekend. So many people who show up at work grumpy or hungover (or both) really would like to “shoot the whole day down” as Bob sings in the song. And given half a chance, they will do so.

Imagine you are a participant in the monthly survey of business prospects we know as PMIs. The results of these surveys are followed widely and can sometimes move markets. Yet have we ever thought about the people who are asked to fill out these surveys?

Klaus Wohlrabe and Jonas Hennrich have discovered that respondents who answer the ifo survey (the German PMI) are significantly more pessimistic about the current situation of their business and the outlook for their business when they answer these questions on a Monday than on a Friday. I mean what would you do if you were in the office on a Monday and you were not feeling your best? Surely, your grumpiness would influence how you see the world and the fortunes of your business. So, you may choose a somewhat gloomier answer.

And apparently, this moves the survey results especially since on average more people answer these surveys on a Monday than any other day of the week. Luckily, the effect is economically not strong enough to make a difference, but it shows once again that even business leaders are just human. And they don’t like Mondays either.

Share of respondents to ifo survey by weekday

Source: Wohlrabe and Hennrich (2024)