In much of the world, today is Labour Day. Though it may have different names in different places, the idea behind the May 1st holiday in many places is to celebrate International Workers’ Day. While much of the developed world still celebrates the holiday, I have to wonder if some of them have forgotten the point.

For example, it’s interesting how the white collar workers — banks, governments, professional service companies, etc — get the day off, while others who could more realistically be considered “labour” — the staff in restaurants and shops, cab drivers, or the empty office building’s security guards — are still on the job. Hopefully their companies will still give them a day off at some point that does not have to come out of their vacation time.

Something else I noticed is that the labour movement that spawned the holiday advocated for the 8-hour workday, and I am seeing so many folks here in Asia whose scheduled jobs are for 12 hours or more every day. There may be good reasons for that, of course, but it seems odd to hold onto the holiday while ignoring what led to the holiday in the first place (then again, I suppose a lot of people say that about Christmas, too).

As you are taking today off, maybe give a thought to all those who do the work that allows you to have a job in a growing business and (hopefully) have a growing paycheck as well. Unless you are a one-person business, you are not accomplishing your successes on your own (and even then, you probably have some external help). In addition to employees who work directly for you, there are likely to be others who support what they do, and if nothing else, there are folks who clean your offices and fix your elevators and take care of little things so you do not have to. Consider how you might make their job a little easier so they can make YOUR job a little easier. And of course, make sure they get some time off for Labour Day, too.