A Salute to Compliance Professionals on Labor Day

Labor Day has its roots in a turbulent time of American labor history. During the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s, the average American worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, just to scrape by. (If you’re a compliance manager, that might sound familiar!) Even young children worked in factories and mines. Unsafe working conditions were the norm. Laborers often had no access to fresh air, clean facilities, or breaks during the day. 

That’s when labor unions started organizing and rising in influence. They began organizing strikes and rallies to protest poor working conditions and incite critical change in working conditions.

Many of these events turned violent, but others established traditions that are still observed today. On September 5, 1882, ten thousand workers in New York City took unpaid time off to march from City Hall to Union Square. It was the first Labor Day parade in U.S. history.

Labor Day Is For Compliance Personnel

Even though today’s security and compliance professionals don’t face those kinds of working conditions, many of us are still experiencing incredible labor demands. 

For example, Phoenix Financial nearly worked themselves into the grave trying to become PCI compliant. When I first met their compliance team, they were laboring from 9 am until past midnight, five to six days a week. And they’d been doing it for months already.

The toil doesn’t last for a few days or a few weeks. It’s a months-long reality — for many companies, more than a year to accomplish the goal for the first time. And then you get to repeat it for a couple months as you prepare for your next annual assessment.

Compliance isn’t an easy job. I talk to a lot of personnel who tell me that they feel like an army of one. They’re the only ones going to battle over critical issues that could expose the organization to attack, or to lost business. 

At the end of the day, it can feel like you’re the only one protecting the company. You’re the shield for your organization, even if others don’t see it that way. Nobody comes in on a miscellaneous Tuesday to give a round of applause because the company didn’t get hacked last night.

Security and compliance is a tough position, but take pride in the fact that you’re an important part of your organization’s success.

Labor Day was established for the men and women who grind it out everyday. We celebrate the hard work that built this nation, and the toil that goes into helping our organizations prosper. To us at TCT, that sounds a lot like the work you’re doing.

If there’s any holiday for compliance professionals, it’s Labor Day.

At TCT, we have a great amount of respect for security and compliance professionals. No matter what your role is or how small your company, you have an enormous responsibility and a weighty task to fulfill. Your job is to ensure the safety and security of your organization — and, therefore, the protection of your company’s people, your customers, and your vendors.

Hats Off to the TCT Team

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge the good folks who have made Total Compliance Tracking the company that we are today.

The success of TCT comes down to a whole team of individuals. I can’t express the gratitude I have for every person here — from the folks who labored above the garage with me years ago to design the TCT Portal, to our newest employees. Dozens of amazing people have jumped onto this crazy ride to help Total Compliance Tracking “become,” as I like to put it. It’s been amazingly rewarding to see their efforts to make TCT what it is today — and staging it for what’s on the horizon.

All of the credit goes to these folks. Thank you! I really and truly appreciate all of your hard work, you’re amazing.

If you’re laboring over compliance, TCT Portal was designed to alleviate your toil. Total Compliance Tracking’s compliance management software was built by people who had hands-on experience of running compliance for a company, consulting with other organizations to help them with their compliance, and working alongside compliance assessors and auditors. Collectively, TCT built the tool I wish I’d had when I was in the trenches, over a decade ago.