This coming Monday is a special day.

For 130 years, Americans have set aside the first Monday in September as Labor Day, a day to recognize and reward the efforts and sacrifices that all of us continue to do every day for our fellow Americans.

Most of us get up and go to work each day because we have to. We have to punch the clock to earn the money to pay the bills, to keep ourselves and our family fed, to keep the car in running order so we can get back to work the next day. Yes, it can be a vicious and monotonous cycle at times.

But there’s more to it than that. Or rather, there can be. You can see it in the pride a craftsman takes when he expertly installs a window in a customer’s home, or makes the proper adjustment to a car engine. When the clerk at the grocery store makes sure to let you know that the steak in your shopping cart is past its expiration date. When a police officer checks back at the end of her shift on a family who had been going through a rough patch just to see that they’re doing okay. When a young child is scared and alone in a hospital room and the on-duty nurse takes out time from her busy schedule to sit down and hold his hand and let him know that everything is going to be okay. Or when the cook at your local go-to breakfast spot serves bacon and eggs just the way you like it, and tops off your cup of coffee without having to ask.

While we work for ourselves, and the paycheck we get at the end of the week, we also work for each other—our friends, our neighbors, even people we’ll never meet or see.

So, this Monday, take time to thank the workers you come across for everything they do for you. And enjoy the day off. You deserve it!