Thank God it is Monday (TGIM), is that even a thing? For many of us, working equals toiling or labouring, literally. If there was a way of surviving without working, most of us would opt for that.

A life where you wake up to watch the sun rise in the morning and set over Mont Kigali in the evening while enjoying the sounds of the chirping birds while everything you desire is provided for. The epitome of a good life. Not so?

The idea of waking up to go to work every Monday through the whole week gives us jitters. We would rather be somewhere on the shores of L. Kivu enjoying the scenic views while sipping our favourite beverage.

Pastor Hassan Kibirango’s book ‘The Gift of Monday’ was launched on Labour Day. Photos/ Courtesy

We don’t have many options. We toil on. Over time, work becomes a burden, not an opportunity. Our attitude to work becomes negative and we report to work to earn the pay cheque.

This is the kind of attitude Pastor Hassan Kibirango is out to change through his recently released book ‘The Gift of Monday’, starting with the day most of us dread -Monday.

The youthful pastor who is among the leading pastors at the Nyarutarama-based Christian Life Assembly (CLA), says fate led him to embrace work early on after the passing of his father, which prompted him to start working to pay his own school dues and for his siblings.

"Growing up, I wanted to do business. I started off doing business when I was quite young. My father died when I was just transitioning into teenage hood, and then we lost almost everything.

"I started to work in order to pay my own school fees and the school fees of my siblings, so I developed a passion for business. I thought my life would be in business,” Kibirango recalls.

Initially he wanted to be a lawyer because his friends were studying law but never had a chance to study it at Makerere University, where he instead settled for a Bachelor’s degree in Education, while at the same time continuing to nurture his passion for doing business.

Born in a polygamous Muslim family, with 17 siblings from different mothers, Kibirango, who was the first born of his mother and second last born of his father, moved to Rwanda in 2008 upon graduating, where he established a multimedia business with his best friend.

"I was in the multimedia business before I transitioned into full-time ministry. When I moved here my best friend and I started a company called Digitec Studios, and it became the largest photography and videography company in Kigali.

"When I transitioned into ministry, he continued doing the work and he is still running the business and it’s still quite a big business. So, my passion was photography then and that’s what I did. I was a photographer,” Kibirango says.

Before transitioning into ministry, Kibirango had cut himself in the multimedia industry, doing work for different corporate entities, weddings and other functions.

Writing a book

Having started work early, Kibirango’s observations on work led him to write a book titled 'The Gift of Monday', which was launched on Labour Day and focuses on how successful people find delight in work on the day dreaded by most, Monday.

"This book was inspired by an article I read just as we’re getting into the first lockdown in March 2020, which stated that a certain country in the west had an issue of working males that were getting heart attacks.

"They realised that 80% per cent of the men who are getting heart attacks in that country were getting heart attacks between 8:00 and 9am on Monday morning,” explains Kibirango.

He says that the article talked about something called ‘Monday blues’ which is an actual anxiety and psychological issue, almost sickness, which invades people.

"It starts on Sunday evening, especially for people who work in toxic environments and for many who have weak hearts, who have issues with their health, this stress that is brought about by work causes some men’s hearts to stop,” he says.

The article intrigued him and he started wondering what it is about Monday that goes as far as killing men.

Pastor Hassan, as he is commonly known, did a lot of research around the book and realised that Monday is simply a representative of a deeper problem, which is the challenge of people hating their work for different reasons.

"I wrote ‘The Gift of Monday’ really to bring back the joy and the spark in this thing that we’re going to be doing for almost half of our lives.

"I mean, if you leave university and join the workspace at 25 and let’s say you retire at 65, you’re going to be working for half your life. 50 per cent of your life that is 150,000 hours on average,” he says.

The author says that if you’re going to spend half of your life working, then why should you subject yourself to hating work which supports your livelihood and helps you to pay your bills?

"I think we can find a place of abiding joy and love for work and that’s what ‘The Gift of Monday’ is about,” he says, adding, however, that the research didn’t just cover men but rather all sections of the population. The article was simply a trigger.

Kibirango says that one of the things he found out is that a poll done by Gallup, one of the world’s leading data collecting organisations, found that 85 per cent to 90 per cent of workers interviewed in over 100 countries said they hate their work for different reasons.

‘The Gift of Monday’ has an intention to turn the tide for many professionals to move away from the idea of tolerating work as something they have no option but to do.

"I tell them, look, we all have one life to live and in this one life, 50 per cent of it you’re going to spend it working. It’s the most productive part of your life.

"It is possible, even if you’re in an environment that is not as enabling or good for work, even if you are under what you call a toxic boss, you can still find a place of joy in your work,” emphasises Kibirango. 

The pastor addresses different things in the book, including why people hate their work, bosses or leaders, who are the main reason people hate their work, among other work-related topics.

The book encourages leaders to make workplaces conducive and places where people can thrive, which is their primary responsibility.

"It is said that people don’t quit their jobs, they quit their boss,” he says, while addressing issues of toxic workplaces. He says that dignified work is no way related to how much one is paid, rather, the way that they are treated at work.

The book further delves into the future of work, where humans will be contending for work with robots and artificial intelligence. It also looks at different ways young people can embrace work.

"My advice to the youth and young professionals, just to help them develop a good attitude towards work, is to know that success doesn’t come instantly, easily.

"Forget the hype we see on social media, where a one who is 22 years old says ‘I am in crypto, I make hundreds of thousands of dollars’, etc. In the technological world, those are called unicorns- the very rare cases of success that are brought to light because of certain technological enablement but largely, we have to work.

"It takes years to build wealth. It takes years to build experience, and that principle has not changed,” says the 38-year-old pastor.

The book is distributed by Imagine We Rwanda and goes for Rwf15, 000.