Labor Day Irony

I always look for the irony in holidays. Labor Day is an easy one. Growing up in a blue-collar family, holidays were just days to do work that you were otherwise too busy to do. Working and living on Martha’s Vineyard is even more taxing than other seasonal resort areas, as we are isolated geographically, and to say that our home is a vacation destination is doubly true. Notice I have "working" before "living;" at this point in the season living is just a by-product of working.

I always remember having some sort of job since the age of nine. Sure, there were chores around the house that kids do, but I started with a newspaper delivery route. I would get up before four in the morning and do a route of 60 or so customers, seven days a week. That was only until summer came around, when I would find day work doing whatever. Turning 16 did not mean getting a driver’s license to go to the beach or parties; it meant that I was now able to get a job beyond where my bike could take me.

Going to college for my first degree was more a vacation than any other time in life. Not that I partied. I spent my time studying or in the gym. My "job" was to get good grades and maintain my academic scholarship; I graduated cum laude. After college, I started working insane hours, all the time, paying down debt, like all college graduates do—first as a private investigator, then casino surveillance, then more college course work and traveling with sports teams until I earned another degree in sports medicine. All of those jobs had odd hours that could easily accumulate past 60 hours each week if you let them.

So now I have been a business owner for nearly a decade. I started on the high end of income and the economy has turned to show me the low end. To say that  I make less money because there is less business would not be true. The subcontractors are doing less work per diem, but I am still keeping the same hectic pace as ever. As Labor Day approaches each year, I am fatigued both mentally and physically. I usually do not get a day off between May and October. Clients expect me to be at their beck and call, even if they have not seen me in several years. I often wonder if it is all worth the effort.

The professions we choose to make our own often determine the hours we keep. Owning a business will make the hours and responsibilities undetermined and too numerous in many cases. I started in this profession 14 years ago and have had success through hard work, due diligence and honing my skills to the point where clients seek out my services, referred by others practioners in my profession.

Yet seldom a week will go by that I am not discriminated against by clients based solely on my gender. Yes, I can say that I completely understand how women in the workforce feel when this happens to them. I struggled to establish myself for weeks my first season on Martha’s Vineyard. Clients would rather go without than work with a male therapist. At this point in my career, I don’t even make the effort to draw in those clients. I would rather hang up on them than to deal with their ignorance.

That might be my first clue that I should make a change in my business model. I have often flirted with changing to a “closed practice,” where I only work with either known clients or those sent by referral. This Labor Day I will need to think long and hard about where my business will be next season. Until then, I will just do the work I have and be thankful that I am still paying the bills.