State Farm is one of the biggest companies in the world and the value that they put towards Diversity and Inclusion is amazing and one of the many reasons I love this company. However, there is always room for improvement. As Juneteeth approaches I couldn't help but realize that this holiday is not recognized as a paid company holiday. After doing further research I found that State Farm only recognizes 6 of the 11 Federal Holidays as Paid Holidays. The 5 unrecognized paid holidays are MLK Day, President's Day, Juneteenth, Indigenous people's day, and Veterans Day. Four of these unrecognized holidays are in celebration and recognition of minority and marginalized groups and I believe that is a problem. Although State Fram recognizes these holidays and more with events, conversation and huddle highlights, it is not a companywide acknowledgement in the same manner that the other federal holidays are. 

 While I'm aware it is not a requirement that companies provide paid time off for every Federal holiday, that does not mean there is no problem. Since State Farm advocates heavily for Diversity and Inclusion I believe it is important that these specific holidays get the same form of company wide recognition as others and that is what this petition is advocating for. After all State Farm strives to be the best company there is not just good enough and that should extend to every aspect of the company.

I understand that SF provides celebration leave for events special to the person however to me that should be in reference to events that ONLY affect the one worker such as graduations, birthdays, etc. and to stuff SOME federal holidays into celebration leave category and not others does not make sense. Some employees don't celebrate Christmas but do celebrate things like indigenous people's day, but they only get a day off for Christmas. One option might be to increase the amount of celebration leave past just one day. How likely is it that every person only has one celebration per year? After all we are humans, and I don't feel that is realistic concept especially without these holidays being paid time off. 

One issue might be that there are too many off days throughout the year and our customers need assistance every day, but I have 2 problems with that. 1. State farm is a Fortune 50 company, 39th on the list to be exact. Which means the total revenue for the company is 39th in the entire united states so being able to provide pay for 5 extra days shouldn't be a problem. 2. Not everyone celebrates every holiday, and we have the choice to work on those days. There is always the option to rotate. As I said earlier there are many employees who do not celebrate Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, and other days that are currently recognized as company holidays, but they do celebrate ones that aren't recognized. So why not rotate or take turns? Now I'm not saying every holiday should be up for roulette each year. But One solution could be to rotate the holidays that don't apply to every person each year. For instance, Memorial Day is recognized this year but next year Juneteenth is recognized instead. Now I would prefer full recognition for all, but this could be a good way to compromise or start a path to that full recognition. Another compromise could be allowing workers to choose which holidays they want to be paid off days throughout the year. That way a burden isn't placed on an employee who celebrates Juneteenth to always have to use their celebration leave on that day every year when they potentially don't even celebrate other SF paid holiday. This loops back to my celebration leave point. It is a burden to have to allocate one days of work to every single celebration.

Overall if You agree that recognizing these other federal holidays will help promote Growth, positivity and Diversity and Inclusion in the State Farm company sign this petition.