The History of Labor Day and Why it Matters to Therapists
Ahmed White, a professor of labor and criminal law at University of Colorado Boulder, describes a brief history of Labor Day in this CU Boulder Today Article . Internationally, May 1 (also May Day) is often celebrated as Workers’ Day while Labor Day is celebrated in September in Canada and the US. The federal holiday in the US was established in June 28, 1894 for September for the first Monday in September. Many people informally celebrated Labor Day at the end of summer with a picnic with the first celebrations being in the 1880s but why have the formal federal holiday in September when most other countries celebrated in May? There were two tragic events involving worker strikes that had occurred in May (it is important to note that there were plenty of other terrible incidents of worker mistreatment and subsequent strikes that resulted in violence when police and militia were brought in by the government): the Haymarket Affair in 1886 and the Pullman Strike in 1894 and it is believed the bill was signed by President Grover Cleveland to end the Pullman Strike but he did not want it to be held in May avoid encouraging protests and socialist and communist movements.
Why is this important for therapists? We labor too. Though I don’t have the numbers to support this claim, I’m going to make it anyways…I believe many people leave jobs due to poor labor practices in the work place. But we don’t feel better if we don’t improve the labor practices in our private practice. It is vital that we establish safe labor practices in private practices in order to prevent burnout, ensure appropriate client care, and to make a livable wage with appropriate retirement planning.
Important labor practices for therapists to keep in mind:
Know how much it costs you to work. This includes your license, cost of CEs, cost of insurance (business and liability), marketing, networking, etc.
Include unpaid working hours in your policies. For example: my policy is to complete any and all paperwork in session with the client present. This serves two purposes: it ensures I am paid for my labor and it increases client care and communication by ensuring the client knows what I am documenting and why and the client can correct or add any information that would be pertinent.
Include your personal awareness of yourself and how your work. Don’t just assume you should work M-F 9-5. In your practice, you set the days and times, truly think about what works for you. If you don’t-you will resent your practice and it won’t sustain you.
Under promise, over deliver. I have a busy life and no that I cannot remember to do things outside of session, usually because I have a text from someone I care for needing something or the school needing something, etc. If I have a resource for a client, I spend the time in session to find said resource, I don’t tell them I will send it out of session-because I won’t be able to follow through with that. Of course, there are instances where we need to consult or do research, that goes in the calendar with time blocked off-not a to do list. I also inform my patients, that my memory is poor outside of session and it is ok to remind me about it.
Informed consents are a great thing for patients, but it can also help keep us following our own labor practices. Don’t do double work with labor practices, if you have a labor practice, have it in your informed consent. Like my prior example of my paperwork policy, this is written in my informed consent document. It is also documented on how how to contact me outside of session. If you need help setting up labor policies for a sustainable practice, feel free to join the premium membership.
