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Home - The Management Association
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Post Labor Day Reflections
by Mary Lynn Fayoumi, CAE, SPHR, GPHR, President & CEO
Published Sept 7, 2010
Where did the summer go? I heard that repeatedly this holiday weekend. 2010 overall and the past three months specifically have passed faster than the speed of light. With almost all kids back in school, swimming pools closing for the season, the return of crisper evenings, and college football just revving up, there is no denying that fall is just around the corner. Even though the calendar makes it clear that we are a week into September already, I am left wondering what happened to summer.
The hazy, lazy days of summer haven’t always been just for kids. This adage used to apply to grownups as well. Summer makes it easy to stay out too late, skip morning workouts, eat too many burgers or hotdogs, and move a little slower during the workweek. Back in the day, summer in the workplace had a more leisurely pace. The rush to do business was not as intense and having a skeleton staff holding down the fort was the norm many days.
Thanks to the current pace of the world and lingering recessionary concerns, most organizations today have lost that old summertime feel. Although summer provides three long holiday weekends for most and scheduled vacation time for many, business demands do not ease off much if at all these days. In many industries, 2010 has been a year of recovery and that has meant additional pressure to keep the tide moving in the right direction. Hiring activity has resumed (albeit slowly) and managers realize that staying competitive does not allow much wiggle room.
So is summer 2010 the new normal? My guess is yes, at least for the foreseeable future. With unemployment still high, a volatile stock market and a complex political and regulatory climate, chances are slim that Americans known for their industrious nature are going to hang-back, slack-off or rest on their laurels anytime soon.
Since we can’t turn back the calendar and start over, I’m all for making lemonade out of lemons. Specifically from a work perspective, fall is a great time of year (at least as good as January) to initiate a fresh start or at a minimum improve upon a few habits that may be getting in the way of optimum performance. No amount of wishing will bring summer back till 2011, so my plan is to shake-off the summertime blues before the deep freeze sets in.
