There’s an old saying that “Hard work never sleeps” – a maxim that undoubtedly dates back as far as women and men have been working anywhere at anything for anyone.

I thought of this while talking with my friend Bill this past weekend. Our sons are in scouts together. Sitting around a campfire up in Glacier View Ranch outside Boulder, he mentioned he delivers packages for Amazon. Bill does this in the early morning before going into his full-time job in IT for a healthcare insurance company.

Amazon Flex drivers are independent contractors. They claim a block of time up to a week in advance, use their own cars, and then hustle to get packages delivered in a pre-determined span of time – anywhere from two to five hours depending upon the distance and number of stops they have to make.

Anyone who uses Amazon knows that its founder, Jeff Bezos, is a stickler for details, including time. Bill says drivers can arrive at a local distribution center up to fifteen minutes early to load their car, but no more than five minutes after the shift time is set to begin. That’s because everything is timed out. Minutes matter.

“The pick-up spot can seem a bit chaotic,” Bill told me. “Cars coming and going, sometimes up to twenty-five of us all at once. There’s someone yelling directions in both English and Spanish. It can be a little stressful to get yelled at so early in the morning, but you can’t take it personally.”

Bill will typically deliver up to 50 packages in 2- or 3-hour shift. It’s all mapped out on his phone, courtesy of Amazon. Some customers have their garage codes programmed into the delivery instructions, so packages can be safely placed inside. Otherwise, they get left on a porch or wherever makes the most sense.

Shiftwork long predates Amazon deliveries, of course. Richard Arkwright, the 18th century Englishman who invented a machine that spun cotton into strong thread, is credited with creating the first 24-hour factory. Employees typically clocked thirteen-hour shifts. Henry Ford modernized the concept and shortened the workday to eight hours.

Whether in law enforcement, emergency and medical services, construction, pilots, farmers, grocery workers, bakers, newspaper or milk deliverers – industrious hardworking people work all night so that many of us can sleep soundly and safely and then wake-up to conveniences we too readily take for granted. Today, upwards of fifteen million people work the “graveyard” shift in the United States.

As a junior in college, I worked for WOR Radio in New York City. I was a flunky and would sometimes assist on the morning show, which went on the air at 5:30 a.m. Living out on Long Island, this required getting up around 2:30 in the morning to take the Long Island Railroad into Manhattan. As the comedian Jerry Seinfeld has joked, “Morning Guy” doesn’t get along too well with “Night Guy.”

Matt Meister, chief meteorologist for Fox21 here in Colorado Springs, regularly gets up between 2 and 3 a.m. He crunches forecast numbers from home, may even do some posting on social media, and then heads in for his live shifts on the air. His son and daughter are older now, but he gave up evening prime time television years ago (as well as opportunities to go to bigger markets) so he could be a dad at the dinner table and on the sidelines coaching or cheering rather than a famous father on television.

In an evolving economy and world, more workers are either working more hours overall or more hours during unconventional times. Although distrusting bosses may think otherwise, when you can work remotely anywhere at any time, there’s a tendency to work all the time. Productivity may increase but mental health can decrease.

Just because somebody works overnight or in the early hours of the morning doesn’t mean they work harder than somebody who works during the day. But it’s good to be reminded every now and again about the whole subculture, of sorts, toiling away for our good while we sleep.

The next time you find an Amazon package on your porch at 6 a.m. along with your Gazette and milk from Royal Crest Dairy, don’t forget to give thanks and say a prayer for the hardworking people who put them there.