On Labor Day, most Americans celebrate their work by taking a break from it, sometimes making trips to the beach or hosting backyard cookouts.

Not everyone had the day off on Monday, though. While media outlets stayed open to cover the news, other local workers strove to make sure that there was no bad news to report.

Derek Medlin, battalion chief with Thomasville Fire Department, said that Labor Day is treated like any other day at his workplace, with no special scheduling or time off.

“Whichever shift is working that day works,” Medlin said. “It’s basically just like any other weekend.”

Firefighters can use vacation time over Labor Day weekend, but no-one at Medlin’s station took that opportunity. He said that they just get used to not always being home on holidays.

“It’s in back of your mind, and you’d love to be able to be with your loved ones, but we knew coming into this job and this profession that this was going to happen,” Medlin said.

Hospital workers are familiar with this reality, as well. Tosha Briles is the nurse manager for Thomasville Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit, which never closes.

“In nursing, you’re just expected to work, especially being in a hospital,” Briles said. “You take the days that you do have off, and you make those your holidays.”

She said that the hospital staff tries to make occasions out of holidays by bringing candy or cupcakes, but Labor Day is just like any other day.

“We always strive to do remarkable patient care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” Briles said. “Work, for us, really does not change just because it’s a holiday.”

Work doesn’t seem to change for the fire department, either, despite all of the cooking out that takes place on the end-of-summer holiday.

“I don’t know that, statistically, we’re any busier on Labor Day,” Medlin said. “Part of the reason is that a lot of people are out of town.”

Lt. Jerry Jolly with the Thomasville Police Department said that typically, three-day weekends tend to be quiet, and problems requiring police tend to be caused by arguments at family gatherings. The department’s administrative offices in the city were closed Monday, but patrol officers are out in full force.

“It’s kind of hard at times, when everybody’s going to the lake and going to cookouts and things, and you’re absent,” Jolly said. “The kids come over, and the grandkids and what-have-you, and you’re just not there. It kind of throws it on your wives to do everything — to be the host and to cook.”

The lieutenant echoed Medlin and Briles, though, when he said that the officers accept that labor on Labor Day is just a fact of life for them.

“Crime doesn’t stop, and people needing help doesn’t stop,” Jolly said. “It’s an ongoing thing. We pretty well understand that, being police officers, it’s part of the game.”

Staff Writer Karissa Minn can be reached at 888-3576 or newsdesk@tvilletimes.com.