RSS 2.0 FeedSeptember 3, 2010, Weekly editorial
Happy Labor Day; let's get better not bitter
Labor Day is celebrated in the U.S. on the first Monday of September, not May 1 as in many other countries. As opposed to celebrating union and political groups, our Labor Day is for everyone.
We often think of Labor Day weekend as the last weekend of the summer, even though warm weather may continue past the official last day of summer, September 21. Traditionally, after Labor Day pools close, boats are stored, children go back to school, and people stop wearing white clothes, while it may continue to be warm through Indian Summer.
The traffic is terrible on Labor Day Weekend, as many take a last fling of summer. But few stop to think about the holiday as anything other than a well-deserved day off.
Yet, it is actually a good time for workers and managers, everyone who makes up a “staff,” to think about why labor is important. During the recent economic downturn, many companies have had to resort to cutting salaries (typically by 10%) or by letting staff go.
And while cutting “the fat” could lead to efficiency, it could also lead to a drop in productivity, the opposite of what is needed for the economy to grow. Surely a 10% unemployment rate does not help the U.S. economy. What if, instead, managers and workers tried to increase their productivity by 10%? This could be the result of efficiencies, of new ideas and of extra effort.
Experts say the average person wastes an hour of each eight-hour work day. That is more than 10%! So just resolving to waste less time and work harder could improve productivity, without having to clock more hours. But much, much more could be done.
Each manager and each worker should realize that he or she has it in his or her power to help make a difference. They should listen to each others’ ideas. And if they did, maybe it would truly be a happy Labor Day.