So...Labor Day??

since it's Labor Day I figured that we could both find out what Labor Day is actually about if you think about some of these holidays some of these holidays just I you know everybody is enjoying them because you get your day off but like what some of them is have some kind of funny background to them and most times we don't even know what we're celebrating we just happy to have a day off honestly so if you Google uh if you Google Labor Day it says that uh it's observed the first Monday in September Labor Day is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers I mean whatever that means uh Mo most people today um not sure they want to celebrate their labor um most people are kind of stuck in like a 9 to five Loop so the celebration is probably not having to work that day hold on let's go to the actual government website it says yeah that's the same thing observe the first Monday of September Labor Day is an annual celebration of Social and economic achievements of American workers that's the thing right like um us Millennials some of this a lot of this stuff we never voted for we never asked for we'll take the day off of course but like a lot of these things that have been instituted into society we weren't they were way before we were even born other people were voting this stuff in not us but I came across this video on YouTube and um so I I I I figure hey look I might as well just we can watch it together because it's NBC there's supposed to be explaining what uh you know what the history behind Labor day is Labor day is almost here but beyond barbecues and a final chance to wear that summer white what is the federal holiday meant to represent and how has the way we work changed over the years here's Labor Day simply explained today work looks a lot different how would you describe the workplace Now versus say what it was like a few decades ago a buyer's market versus the sellers Market Johnny Taylor is president and CEO of the Society of Human Resources management back in the day employers if you will bought talent and so it was very much up to the employer to determine the terms and conditions of employment fast forward in a knowledge-based economy everyone now understands that they sell their talents and their skills to organizations the seller in this case the American worker is celebrated on Labor Day put simply Labor Day in some ways for for many decades was closely tied to labor unions in the United States right um especially I just want to pause it right there and say if we are selling our our talents we're selling our skills the price of Labor is cheap now for the companies because I don't think if we if it was actually real market value then the the the average uh take-home uh pay for you know their average American probably wouldn't be 40 50k uh if if if if this was a a fair market value for what labor is up to the 1950s 60s at the time union membership was defined by craft unions or guilts think skilled workers Carpenters plumbers and electricians it's very much not connected to labor unions anymore which have declined in membership you know really since the 1970s that image of the guy in a sort of steel toed boots and a hard hat mostly that doesn't exist today just over 11% of American workers are in unions down from a high of over 30% in the 1950s so how did we all end up getting the day off the thing about unions is that it is uh it is there was a a big decline but now they they seem like they're making making a a comeback um because there's a lot of workers that they really don't have any leverage to to to negotiate with these larger companies so there has to be a middleman you know I mean I and I I don't think you can un unionize every industry but I think unions uh can definitely be helpful for those that don't have that have any leverage other than being um Collective uh you know a collective talent pool for whatever industry that is and having someone that can um step in and mediate for them on their behalf because um if not then I mean they they're going to take whatever they're going to have to take whatever wages the companies decide to give them so but I I think they're I think they're really starting to come back a lot more in some of the more trade areas um of work that could be a good thing quick history lesson Labor Day officially became a national holiday in 1894 in legislation signed by then president Grover Cleveland now there's some dispute over which uh labor leader first proposed the idea to kind of strike a one day year and then some state governments over the course of the 1880s um started recognizing this as Labor day but the way we work has drastically changed according to PE resarch search center today 14% of employees are fully remote that's compared to 5.7% who worked from home in 2019 prior to the covid pandemic and the length of time spent in careers is changing too workers under 34 years old are on average switching careers every 1.3 years that's compared to older employees switching every 4.9 years one thing the pandemic definitely did was show people that a lot of jobs can be done at home and if it said 14% of people are working remotely and if it feels like that there's there's a a a large pool of people that are trying to get remote work but there's only like a few work job work from home jobs um and there are certain jobs that can't even be done from from home so you know if you're in that industry you just you're just kind of uh accepted the fact that you're going to be going in 5 days a week for however many hours or even if you do 41 or whatever I mean my if if I was doing something like that I would absolutely look for 410 um to get that extra day off but um the job market is slowly shifting but I think I think um I think hybrid to remote is going to start to become the future because of the ADV the way that things are advancing so quickly in the Internet space um and just with Broadband itself um I think that that that is a an open Avenue that is going to be it's going to take some Growing Pains but over time um I think companies are going to start to realize how much money they actually are going to save by not renting out these commercial buildings and these other entities that they use um so that they can have you know basically butts and seats so why why not save that money and invest it back into your employees I mean it it just makes more sense but you know whenever whenever there's something new or something an emerging um technology an emerging effort something that um that breaks tradition and is not a custom there's always going to be there's always going to be a bunch of push back in the beginning and there's going to be some rough spots in the beginning I think that's where we're at because it's in such early stages you know you go back 203 years ago um there were very very very few remote workers and and most people didn't even didn't even think of the concept of actually working from home as something that is actually valid or legit or ever even going to happen why have we seen these changes number one would be demographics American birth rates been on a decline translation fewer workers and more demand the second and perhaps most important reason is just the nature of business in a knowledge-based economy and then there was Co the nation reached a 20-year High quit rate following the pandemic the organizations who are going to win are the ones who get the right people and keep those people keep them motivated and so employers have to be far more focused now and how we treat our employees and that's Labor Day simply explained yeah so I mean when they're talking about uh how they treat workers I think that's a very key Point there's so many there's so many videos online about uh how workers are being treated and how they um you know the average person is not like trying to be a millionaire they just want to be paid their their fair value and that's where they that's where the Gap comes because there's a value that there's a value that the company sets for a specific skill set or specific position and then there's a value that you set for yourself and sometime and sometimes that can be very far apart but at the end of the day no company can run without employees um well very few can run without employees and if you don't have employees you are the employee so um that's that's that's the thing with with companies but then also you know people need companies um to provide um a means of an income for most people because let's face it most people are not um the entrepreneur type and actually if you talk about entrepreneurs a lot of time entrepreneurs end they working more than you than uh if you just had a regular nino5 job because as an entrepreneur you're going out to get your own you have to um be be take the accountability for your business um at at all times it don't it doesn't matter like there is no set schedule for you so if say you're in real estate and somebody wants to close a deal and it's on the weekend you got to go and close that deal or you know there is no there can there's a lot of times where there is no weekends and holidays and all that stuff that the regular worker has gotten accustomed to so so most people aren't cut out to be entrepreneurs and you know a lot of people this the thing with being an entrepreneur right and I don't want to go off on on a rant but because I want to keep this focused on Labor Day but the thing about being an entrepreneur is that like a lot of people will own a business just to say that they are entrepreneur but the business isn't even profitable so it's probably benefiting you more to go back to working in a job or 9 to-5 until you figure out you know how you can make a business that's profitable so you know that's another thing but on the top of this this Labor Day I mean like like everybody else I'll take the day off I'm not even sure what we're actually celebrating here um I guess you know you I'll leave that up to you you you can put something in the comments but um just celebrating uh the labor movement is kind of a little strange because not a lot of people are very happy with the labor so whatever we're celebrating it definitely has came before any Millennials or gen Z's hit the market because um the last thing I think they want to do is celebrate their labor so but you know it's it it it was fun just looking into it and see what it's actually about and you know some of the history of it but like I said we're Millennials a lot of geners we ain't pick none of this stuff we didn't we never got a a a ballot that said do you think this should be holiday you none of this stuff we we didn't vote none of this stuff in none of these the nine the typical 9 to5 you work Monday through Friday two days off we didn't vote none of this stuff in we're just been thrust into it and so now they're telling us that hey it's Labor Day so you get a day off so that's all we see but I'll talk to y'all later peace