See you next Monday?

When someone says see you next Monday it can be really confusing depending on what day they are saying it on. Here’s how I think it breaks down:

•If you say see you next Monday on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday it probably means the next most immediate Monday
•If you say see you next Monday on Saturday or Sunday it probably means 2 Mondays from now
•If you say see you next Monday on Friday it could mean either or, and should be clarified

Recently I was waiting to receive a wire transfer and the person said to me that their co-worker would take care of it when they returned to work from holiday next Monday. They said this to me on Thursday at 2:30pm. Immediately I got to thinking what exactly did they mean?

It turns out they did mean the nearest Monday, but then further confused the matter by not following through leading me to believe that I had been duped by a case of the “next mondays.” The only thing I can say is that the term next whatever day has officially been erased from my vocabulary.

Here is some further reading on the subject.