Labor Day or Labor “Way?”

Happy Labor Day weekend.  If you are like many Americans you will be heading to a bbq or beach this weekend.  On the way there you will probably sit in a lot of traffic (especially today and Monday).  You will find yourself far from alone on the beaches and as you shop for your bbq groceries you will face crowded stores.

Why?  Because corporate America still insists on thinking like they did when Labor Day was first celebrated back in 1882…which was a time when many American workers toiled in factories for long hours in poor working conditions.  Our surroundings and working conditions certainly have improved but the way we work is still being dictated by others…without much forethought for what is best for workers.

Think about it.  Someone has decided we need to work on M-F from roughly 9-5 and that holidays should occur on Mondays.  And we all should go along with it.  What if we didn’t?  What if we worked as needed, met our deadlines with quality work and skipped the crowds?  Less rush hour, alarm clocks only necessary if you have meetings to attend to, if you are a night person work then, a day person work then.

I know this seems crazy to many of you, but some of us do it already.  More than 30% of the workforce are independent workers.  A number that has been growing 7X faster than traditional corporate employees since 2002.  I worked in TV for many years.  I never worked the same hours each day or each week.  My schedule was based on the work I needed to do and I almost never faced a rush hour or went on vacation with throngs of people, I worked traditional holidays and received comp. days for working them…so my holidays came when you all were in the office and I had the beach and roads to myself.

This post was inspired by a tweet:  “JanetAHutton - @leanneclc Instead of “Labor Day” – Labor “Way” – in the way we work celebrating open flexible work.”  And I thank Janet.  I hadn’t thought of it formally but it is the way I live my life: I take my little one out of school rather than vacation during traditional vacation weeks,  my husband and I celebrate “Valentine’s Day” on any day after Feb. 14th so we don’t have to pay an artificially high price for flowers, dinner or anything else and I love working traditional holidays…when I worked in an office it took me about half as long to get all my work done that day.

This may be one more generational shift happening in the work world.    X and Y aren’t going to do things “the way we’ve always done them.”  We’re going to think it through and do what makes sense for us as individuals.  That’s right, what’s right for “us”  as individuals, not what’s right for the corporation because they say so!  And this may be another reason why I’ve seen articles like this one asking if HR is fatally flawed.  And yes, I think it is…but not because it can be outsourced…because it is not “listening” to what is happening in the work world and changing with it.  Instead it is still thinking about traditional Labor Day-type practices and many of us are no longer interested in that.

HR – what do you think about changing the way we work?

Workers – Would you prefer to work traditionally or do you go for a less traditional approach?