Just when we think that
Elon Musk cannot disappoint us further, he sets a new record for himself. He
has now announced that Tesla and SpaceX will observe Juneteenth as a holiday
which sounds like a reasonable decision, right? Well, wait for it! It won’t be
a paid holiday.

 

Juneteenth which is
also known as Freedom Day is celebrated because Major General Gordon Granger
and Union troops arrived in Texas on this day to announce that slavery was no
longer a law in the county. This also carries weight because of the continuous
struggles of black people against systematic racial oppression, especially in
the light of recent events like the murders of George Floyd and others at the
hands of police violence.

 

Many organizations
decided to pay respect to this day and observe a holiday to honor the struggles
of all the freedom fighters and black people who have to face this struggle
every day. Nike, Twitter, and the NFL gave a paid holiday to the employees, and
companies like Google canceled all unnecessary meetings on the day.

 

Source: Twitter

So, Musk jumped on the
bandwagon saying,  “Juneteenth is
henceforth considered a US holiday at Tesla & SpaceX.”

 

However, just when the
appreciation started to pour in for the CEO, he decided to ruin his own
reputation by saying that like other holidays at Tesla and SpaceX, workers
would have to use previously allotted paid time off, or vacation day to take
the day off for Juneteenth.

Source: Twitter

So basically, if you
take a day off at Tesla, it will be counted as an unpaid absence. This was obviously met
with backlash on the social media site.