Labor Day: Not Much of a “Holiday” for Most Anymore
By federal decree (and officially established in 1894), the first Monday in September shall be recognized as Labor Day, a day to honor the American Labor Movement and to recognize the contributions made by workers towards the strength, prosperity, and well-being of the United States.[1]
Some people view Labor Day weekend as the “unofficial” end of summer (although officially, summer still has three weeks left in the season). School starts back up in Maryland on Tuesday, and the weekend will be the “last hurrah” of cook-outs, family reunions, beach visits, long afternoons spent by a swimming pool, or sleeping in before the work/school week kicks back in on Tuesday.
Still others will view Labor Day as a shopper’s paradise, with many sales opportunities and deep discounts awaiting consumers in big box stores and malls around the country.
If you’re lucky (or a Federal worker), Monday will represent an actual holiday, allowing for a three-day weekend and a shortened upcoming work week.
Pffffffffffttttt, I say.
If you have a job in retail, fire and rescue, health services, food and beverage, or many, many other services, Labor Day is just another Monday. I myself have to go in early Monday and watch shoppers slobber over deep discounts on appliances and end of season deals on lawn mowers, grass seed, and other home improvement items. Halloween decorations have been out for three weeks at my big-box home improvement store, and believe it or not, we got our first shipment of artificial Christmas trees in this past week (luckily, they’ll wait until the end of September before putting those out).
Restaurants are open, public pools and amusement parks are still welcoming guests, and by and large, this so called “holiday” that we celebrate is only truly observed by a fraction of the population anymore. Seems like the only thing I can’t do these days on Labor Day is go to the bank, pick up my mail, or get my driver’s license renewed.
As for “celebrating” labor, I’m not so sure we do that as much anymore, either. Been to the grocery store lately? The self-checkout lines now outnumber the ones manned by a real person. You can order at McDonald’s from kiosks, pay your bills online, and buy almost anything you want (from live poultry to prescription medications) directly from your phone. It requires no human interaction whatsoever, and as such, requires less and less “labor”. That’s great for stockholders, but not so great for Mr. and Mrs. “Average Joe”, whose efforts and hard work we’re supposed to be celebrating.
So, if you are one of the lucky few that actually gets Monday “off” as a holiday, take a few moments to remember your working brethren, who are still on the front lines of battle – pounding out the start of another work week.
I suppose I’ll have just have to suck it up and celebrate “Be Late for Something Day” (September 5th), or maybe “Salami Day” (September 7th).
I guess it doesn’t really matter, as I won’t get those off from work, either.
[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Labor Day,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Labor_Day&oldid=857663264 (accessed September 2, 2018).
One thought on “Labor Day: Not Much of a “Holiday” for Most Anymore”
Except for Christmas Day people are still going to work and there are even some who have to work on that day. I am firmly against the self checkout that you mentioned that has become so prevalent at Walmart and other stores. Besides putting people out of work, half the time the registers don’t work properly and you end up standing there waiting for a clerk to help you. I refuse to use them and don’t shop at stores who use them.