One thing they don’t tell accounting students is that if you select the tax route, you’ll most likely never get to have Labor Day off. I don’t think this should be a deterrent but it should be part of an honest discussion since there’s so much this holiday signifies.
Labor Day should be the day workers rest and relax, recoup and refocus. It’s also a recognition of the way laborers came together and fought for their rights and won them. When Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 no one had any idea that in 2018, tax accountants would be toiling away trying to complete extended tax returns for pass-through entities.
Given that this holiday has also come to symbolize the end of summer, it’s a time when your family and friends are having some type of get together. While we’d like to be there, we get used to being in the office. It’s actually not bad because it’s relaxed, no one (usually) calls or otherwise interrupts your day. This lets us get a lot done on a day when everyone else is intentionally not getting anything done.
Now that I’ve worked my way up to the top of our tax department, I try to make sure my staff don’t miss out on the whole holiday. We have an honest discussion a week or two ahead of time about the volume of work to get done by September 15th, which is our next big deadline. I encourage them to get enough done so that we can all leave by mid afternoon on Labor Day. This way they can join their family and friends for the best part of the day – Dinner Time! I’ll also add that we treat this holiday as something like a floating holiday and they’ll be allowed to take a full day off when it’s more convenient for our schedule.
I hope you all have a great Labor Day, whether you’re intentionally not working today or whether your position requires you to be working.