Reclaiming January
By Jozef Raczka
Pulling Hope Out Of The ‘Worst Month’ of the year.
January has never been easy but 2021, has been a particular struggle.
The workplace wellbeing platform Champion Health found, using data from the ONS and some of their own, that this January was, from a mental wellbeing standpoint, the worst on record. It shows record lows on levels of wellbeing, happiness & satisfaction & a record high on levels of anxiety.
Analysis of the data has found that January 2021 was the saddest of the last 10 years. This is a rise above the previous low of 2012, when the UK entered its first double-dip recession since the 1970s.
The figures also revealed an average happiness score of only 6.4 out of 10 during the month. Compare this to a decade-long average of 7.5. It’s a significant decrease from the 7.4 average recorded in January 2020.
This marks the saddest January of the last 10 years, above the next lowest in 2012, when the UK entered its first double-dip recession since the 1970s. Figures also indicate that the UK is on track for the saddest Quarter 1 of the decade too.
But has January ever had a chance? It is tasked with beginning a new year, either bearing the burden of being better than or living up to the year before. We start taking on resolutions to improve ourselves that so many of us will give up on before the middle of the month that 12th January has been given the name Quitters Day.
Of course, we can’t forget that the third Monday in January has been given the title of the saddest day of the year, or ‘Blue Monday’.
To be honest, few times will January ever have the opportunity to be an optimistic month, but even by those standards, we’ve got to admit that January 2021, on a global scale, has not been great.
Across the year, we can see that 58% of individuals polled reported some form of stress at work.
The statistics for depression and anxiety are similarly above half. It might be flippant or unwarranted to suggest that what we are facing represents a mental health crisis. Nevertheless, it’s certain that if we don’t start taking more action soon, we could very well be facing that statement being an unequivocal reality.
At this point, we don’t need to join in with the pile-on towards January, towards Blue Monday, or towards giving up on resolutions. A cursory Google search about the phrase ‘January – Worst Month’ reveals a lot of responses. This includes an article that now seems oddly prescient declaring January 2020 to be the worst and longest month.
This is an interesting comparison to pull. If we review the data (without 2021) to that point, 2020 did not represent the ‘worst year on record’. However, it was significantly worse than 2019. That year, on average, had the highest recorded Happiness, Life Satisfaction & feeling Worthwhile.
Ultimately, no year is ever taken completely out of context. Each is only ever better or worse than what has come before. We don’t have data to show how people felt about January 2020 in 2021, or any further back. We only have the moment. Therefore we are in no position to say how anyone should have felt in it.
We often ask “is January the worst month?”. No one seems to ask if things start to look up in February. Maybe a better way to start this year is to forgive yourself. You might not keep up your resolutions.
You might be missing Christmas, especially if you felt last year you didn’t have a proper one. Ultimately, feeling down isn’t an emotion you can make to just stop. Perhaps accepting it is the first step to feeling better.
So don’t blame yourself and don’t blame January. It’s trying hard like all of us.
Author Bio
Joe is a Content Executive who works across multiple markets including educational publishing in Africa, internet safety & workplace mental health. He has previously written for titles as diverse as Living and Loving, VultureHound, Across the Pond Wrestling, Creative Click Media & The Guardian. He currently works for the international educational publisher, Twinkl.
(This data was first featured on Champion Health’s blog.)
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