While the rest of us sleep in …

There is something a little unfair about waking up early on a statutory holiday.

The alarm goes off. You briefly forget what day it is. Then it hits you. Everyone else is sleeping in, planning a barbecue, packing the kids into the car for a trip to the beach or deciding whether they should mow the lawn today or put it off until tomorrow.

You, on the other hand, are putting on a uniform and trying to convince yourself coffee really can solve anything.

If you’ve ever worked retail, health care, emergency services, hospitality, public transit, utilities, manufacturing, airports, long-term care, broadcasting, customer service or any of the countless jobs that keep our communities running, you know exactly what I mean.

Stat holidays are funny things. For some people, they represent a day off; for others, they are simply Wednesday with holiday pay.

As an HR professional, I spend a lot of time talking about workplace culture. We discuss leadership, recognition, communication and employee engagement. All of those things matter. But every stat holiday reminds me some of the strongest workplace cultures are built not in boardrooms but in break rooms.

They are built by front-line employees.

They are built by the people who decide that if they’re going to spend Canada Day, Labour Day or Thanksgiving together instead of with their families, they might as well make the best of it.

I have seen it happen over and over again.

Someone brings muffins. Someone else shows up with enough coffee for the whole shift. Someone decorates the staff room with leftover holiday decorations they found in a cupboard from three years ago.

There is always one person who insists on playing music everyone else pretends to hate but secretly knows all the words to.

Someone organizes a potluck that somehow includes six desserts and one lonely vegetable tray. There is the annual debate over whether holiday pay is really worth getting out of bed for. (It isn’t.)

Until about three hours into the shift. Then, it starts to feel a little better.

What fascinates me is that these moments are almost never directed by management.

They are created by co-workers. People who decide while they cannot change the schedule, they can change the mood.

That matters more than we often realize.

Research tells us one of the biggest contributors to job satisfaction is having positive relationships at work. It is not always the fancy employee appreciation programs that people remember years later.

They remember the nurse who always brought homemade cookies on Christmas morning.

They remember the cashier who somehow made everyone laugh during the busiest shift of the year.

They remember the paramedic who kept spirits high during a 12-hour holiday shift.

They remember the maintenance worker who surprised everyone with donuts at six o’clock in the morning because “if we’re all here anyway, we may as well have sprinkles.”

Those moments become stories. Those stories become culture.

Front-line employees have an incredible ability to influence the emotional temperature of a workplace. One positive person can lift an entire shift. One grumpy person can also accomplish that, just in the opposite direction.

You have probably worked with both.

The co-worker who greets everyone with: “Well, here we are again.” And the co-worker who walks in carrying cinnamon buns and says: “Happy stat, everyone!”

Guess which one people hope is on the schedule.

Humour deserves far more credit than it gets in the workplace. Not sarcasm, not putting people down. Instead, humour that is received as kindness.

The kindness that helps everyone survive a busy day.

The shared eye contact after the 10th customer asks the same question.

The inside jokes that make absolutely no sense to anyone outside your department.

The playful competitions over who can answer the phone with the happiest voice before the second cup of coffee.

Laughter has a remarkable way of reminding us that we are on the same team. It turns co-workers into companions.

There is also something unique about working a holiday together. It creates a strange little club.

You are the people who know what the roads look like at 6 a.m. while everyone else is asleep.

You know which coffee shops are actually open.

You know holiday shifts somehow feel both incredibly slow and unbelievably busy at exactly the same time.

You have all checked your cellphones during lunch just to see photos of everyone else’s family gathering.

You have all thought: “I’ll celebrate later.”

That shared experience creates bonds office workers sometimes never experience.

And while I firmly believe employers should recognize the sacrifices made by front-line staff, I also know some of the most meaningful recognition comes from peers.

A simple “I’m glad you’re working with me today” carries surprising weight. So does sharing snacks. (Never underestimate the morale-boosting power of sharing snacks.)

As someone who writes about work for a living, I often focus on what organizations should do better. Today I want to say something different: I want to thank the front-line workers themselves.

Thank you to the people who answer the phones while the rest of us are enjoying family brunch.

Thank you to the grocery store employees who make sure we can still buy hamburger buns because someone forgot them. Again.

Thank you to the people caring for patients, residents and vulnerable people who do not get to pause their needs simply because it is a holiday.

Thank you to the transit drivers getting people where they need to go.

Thank you to the restaurant staff serving families celebrating together.

Thank you to everyone who keeps the lights on, the water running, the shelves stocked, the streets safe and our communities moving.

Most of all, thank you for taking care of each other.

The way you celebrate birthdays with dollar store decorations.

The way you save the last cookie for the co-worker who is running late.

The way you ask someone if they want a coffee because you are heading out anyway.

The way you notice when someone seems quieter than usual.

Those moments may seem small.

They are not. They are the reason people stay.

Workplace culture is often described as something leaders create.

Leaders certainly influence it, but culture also lives in the everyday choices made by ordinary employees.

It lives in kindness. It lives in generosity. It lives in humour. It lives in the decision to make an ordinary holiday shift feel just a little less ordinary for the people standing beside you.

Thank you for showing up when the rest of us have the day off.

More importantly, thank you for making work a place where your co-workers can laugh, belong and feel seen — even on the days they would much rather be sleeping in.

Tory McNally, CPHR, BSc., vice-president, professional services at TIPI Legacy HR+ (formerly Legacy Bowes), is a human resource consultant, relationship builder and problem solver.

She can be reached at tmcnally@tipipartners.com