photo credit: Old Sarge

From the Wikipedia entry on Labor Day:

The holiday originated in Canada out of labor disputes (”Nine-Hour Movement”) first in Hamilton, then in Toronto, Canada in the 1870s, which resulted in a Trade Union Act which legalized and protected union activity in 1872 in Canada. The parades held in support of the Nine-Hour Movement and the printers’ strike led to an annual celebration in Canada. In 1882, American labor leader Peter J. McGuire witnessed one of these labor festivals in Toronto. Inspired from Canadian events in Toronto, he returned to New York and organized the first American “labor day” on September 5 of the same year.

People have fought for workers’ rights for many years now so that people who worked in factories and farms and stores and everywhere else wouldn’t have to work overly long days.

Isn’t it a little funny, then, how many of us in offices go right on working overly long days?

If today is a holiday for you, as it is for most of our readers, use this day as you choose. You can even choose to work a bit, to get a leg up on your workload and your competition.

But do remember to take some time for yourself, too. And remember that work is about supporting ourselves and providing for our passions. It’s wonderful when our work happens to be our passion, but it can make it hard to escape and get some much-needed time away and perspective. This is a day perfectly suited for that time and perspective.

Happy Labor Day! Enjoy it. We’ll see you back at work tomorrow.

That means that you have a full day on Monday to get things done. Sure – carve out time to grill out, go to the lake, sing a song – but just imagine what you could do in four hours that morning with no one sending you emails. And none that you have to send.

Most people will probably leave the office tomorrow after lunch, too. If you stay until five, you’ll have five more hours to do (nearly) uninterrupted work. Combine that with Monday morning and you get an extra day. One entire day that your competition, your co-workers and your colleagues may ignore. What can you do to get ahead, be remarkable and mark off your list?

This is definitely in my plans. I have every intention of getting some relaxation in, but the extra few hours of organizing what has gotten a bit chaotic, of catching up on projects at a high level, of checking off just one or two extra tasks — all of that will ultimately reduce stress and anxiety and make my work life calmer, so it be as good for me as any R&R could ever be.

What about you? Are you regarding this long weekend as strictly an opportunity to relax, or will you be sneaking some work in? Lay it down for us in the comments.