Last week, we celebrated Labor Day. A holiday that recognizes our country’s working men and women. When the annual celebration first started, during the height of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800’s, manufacturing workers labored 12-hours a day, 7 days a week. A workforce that included children as young as 5 years old.

As conditions worsened, Labor Unions became more prominent. On September 5, 1882, the Central Labor Union organized the first Labor Day celebration in New York City. Two years later, it was a recognized holiday in 24 states and on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland made Labor Day an official federal holiday to be celebrated each year on the first Monday in September.

 When the 40-hour work week became more common, many people were able to enjoy a three day holiday. Today, many holidays fall on a Monday for this very reason. The three day weekend we all look forward to.

Then we were hit with this COVID-19 pandemic and schools and many businesses shut their doors. We wrote in earlier blogs about the evolution of the hybrid office and the WFH (Working From Home) phenomenon.

A common byproduct of this new way of doing business is that the traditional 9-5, 5-day work week went out the window. Studies have brought to light that people are working more, working at off hours and working during traditional off days.

Working remotely has forced employees to collaborate more often, so many more meetings are scheduled. And there has been an increased emphasis put on communication. Because your work partner isn’t sitting at the desk across from you, it takes more time and diligence to keep in touch and informed. 

The WFHers have found that the normal work day doesn’t work from the dining room table. Many people are working staggered hours in order to fulfill other obligations. The kids are home from school and need to be tended to, so late night hours sometimes work out best. Or weekends. Or, when necessary, holidays. What people are saving on commuting time, they’re spending making meals and helping keep the kids engaged.

An executive with a habit of working late under normal circumstances would often send emails to coworkers in the evening with no expectation of getting a response until the next business day. What he didn’t expect was, when he did this while working remotely, people were sending him replies at all hours of the night and on the weekend. Welcome to the new world order. 

Studies have found that many employees are working, on average, three hours a day longer. To no surprise, studies have also shown that these same employees are reporting that they feel burned out.

At JitterWorks, we made a conscious effort to recognize and celebrate Labor Day. Closed the lid on the laptop, put the phone on silent and the meat on the grill and honored why the holiday was created in the first place.

We hope you all were able to do the same.