Tesla & SpaceX Make Juneteenth An Employee Holiday
Juneteenth was a day that ushered in freedom for slaves in the United States. It happened on June 19, 1865. Slavery is just sick and evil, and the way our nation has treated black Americans (or black people in general — from other countries as well) is beyond horrifying and sickening.
Juneteenth is henceforth considered a US holiday at Tesla & SpaceX
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/fineline_kae/status/1273847128440307712?s=21
Juneteenth was just the first step toward solving that problem, and many agree it should be a public holiday. Even though it’s not a federal holiday, Elon Musk announced today that Tesla and SpaceX would honor this day as a holiday. Both companies will allow employees to take the day off using their paid time off or vacation time.
It does require use of a paid-time-off day, which is true of many other holidays
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2020
Unfortunately, many have criticized Elon Musk for doing this and believe that the holiday should be automatically paid even though most holidays do not include pay if you don’t come in to work.
I personally believe that each and every corporation in America should honor not just Juneteenth but also other holidays as paid holidays. It would be nice for Tesla and SpaceX employees to be paid holiday pay while working, but at least both companies are giving their employees an off day with PTO to honor the day.
That’s actually a pretty nice and decent thing to do Elon. Thank you.
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) June 19, 2020
One of the many criticisms around the idea of using PTO to take the holiday is that PTO should be vacation time. Honestly, having worked minimum-wage jobs at corporations that didn’t provide PTO as an option, I believe that those who have the luxury of working at such jobs should be grateful.
Many companies that do provide PTO will often hire only part-time workers simply because they wish to avoid giving the option for healthcare and benefits that include PTO. They would work you at really crazy hours and give you workweeks where you’d work a 15 straight day week but due to the workweek beginning and ending at odd times, you’d only make the maximum 34 hours for one week.
My point is that at least in the case of Tesla and SpaceX, both companies actually care about their employees. And they care enough to make Juneteenth a holiday. Yet the far left sees Elon Musk as the ultimate villain, so to fit the narrative, they paint him as such. A simple Google search would have you believe that Elon Musk is doing a horrible thing by making Juneteenth a company holiday.
They would probably have a very different take on the matter if the company wasn’t Tesla or SpaceX (or one of a few other companies it’s popular to call evil). Corporations don’t pay people to stay home for most holidays. This is nothing new. This shows just how much some people have been programmed — and are programming others — to hate someone who is trying to do something positive.
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