US celebrates Labour Day, outdoor picnics and barbecues mark the occasion

Annual festivity

• Labour Day, which represents the end of summer, was celebrated on September 5. The day is typically marked by outdoor picnics and barbecues before people start putting away their summer clothes. Labor Day celebrations began all the way back in the 1800s to honour the struggle of workers.There is an unofficial rule that you shouldn’t wear white after Labour Day, but the idea is outdated.“White was tied to summer vacations — a privilege only few could afford. Labor Day represented the ‘reentry’ into city life and the retirement of white summer clothes after a summer of leisure for the upper classes,” explained Valerie Steele, a fashion historian and director of the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology.This is the first time since the start of the pandemic that people can freely celebrate and travel during this holiday. According to WalletHub, more than 150 million Americans were expected to either host or attend cookouts this year; 53 per cent planned on travelling, with San Diego, Chicago and New Orleans being the top destinations.Labour Day coincides with the West Indian American Day Parade in New York City, which celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in the Caribbean.

Unique race

• Last week, over 150 people dressed in inflatable T-Rex costumes were seen running down the street in Auburn, Washington, in a race to see who would be the quickest dinosaur of them all. The race was hosted byTriGuard and Pest Control, and competitors raced each other on a 100-metre track at the Emerald Downsracetrack. This is the third year the event is being held. The 2019 race was recorded and played on ESPN,garnering over 100 million views.It has also been featured in People magazine and on Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.As a result, the organisers decided to ramp it up this time and make it more formal.The video of the race,which can be viewed on YouTube, shows only one dinosaur losing its balance and hitting the dirt while the others continued on.“I’m so disappointed,”a comment on the track’s Facebook video says. “I literally only watched this to see how many would fall.”The point of the race is simply to have fun, without any prizes for the winners. There was one race for adults and a separate one for kids under 16 years of age. The race season runs till September 18.

Historic tragedy

• A new exhibition is coming to New York that explains the history of the tragic sinking of the Titanic passenger ship in 1912.There will be immersive exhibitions and real objects,photographs and hand-written letters that belonged to the passengers will also be on display.The exhibition is curated jointly by a Spanish company, Musealia,and the Titanic historian, Claes-Göran Wetterholm. Their goal is to tell the truth about what happened.The movie, Titanic, may have glamourised and fictionalised some parts of the chain of events and this exhibition aims to set the facts straight.“Far more than just a display of historic items, ‘Titanic. The Exhibition’ is a unique narrative experience,a tale of the people aboard history’s most legendary ship on its maiden and final journey,” reads the press release.The tragedy took place almost100 years ago and led to the death of around 1,500 people. Around 710 survived the ordeal. Recently, new video footage was released by an exploration company which conducted an expedition to the wreck. In fact,tourists could also pay $250,000 to travel down to the seabed and see it for themselves.

New strategy

• A recent workplace concept that has been popularised on TikTok is that of ‘Quiet Quitting’. It refers to employees doing the job that is required but not going above and beyond for no additional pay. The idea focuses on setting boundaries at the workplace.“I do not believe that the workplace and the culture in the workplace is going to go back to business as usual. Will it stay as flexible as it is today, we might have some bumps along the road especially if people continue to talk about a recession.But, I do believe there will be a shift,“said Cherita Ellens, president and CEO of Women Employed.Several prominent news publications are defining and redefining what ‘Quiet Quitting’ means. The concept draws attention to corporations’ exploitation of labour, often at minimum wage, forcing employees to work additional hours without adequate compensation.Many thought leaders are also trying to advise what to do if your employee is a quiet quitter. Harvard Business Review, which has conducted several studies on workplace culture and leadership, says that it comes down to the basic exercise of leadership skills such as building trust and ensuring a culture that brings out team productivity.

Footnote

• As a part of the open-air exhibition, Jaguar Parade NYC 2022, 40 statues of jaguars are going to be placed in key landmark locations in New York,such as Tavern On The Green, United NationsPlaza, Central Park Zoo, and Times Square. It calls attention to the threat to jaguars, an endangered species. It will end with an art auction and all of the proceeds will go to jaguar conservation centres. The jaguar is listed as “near threatened”on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.