195 Comments

During the pandemic my company added a number of “holidays” where they gave the whole company off, and I think most people felt the benefit was massively greater than adding a few more days of vacation. Knowing that when you had the day off you weren’t missing meetings, falling behind on email, and so forth made those days much relaxing, and the benefit would have been even greater if they were federal holidays and not just company holidays. Couldn’t agree more with this one.

Expand full comment

Clearly Election Day should be a holiday.

Expand full comment

I want more "happy" holidays, like July 4th, rather than occasions where people argue about who is recognizing it the most appropriately.

Expand full comment

On the coordination side it's all about buy-in by the public. People what the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc off because they have particular things they want to do. No one is really sure what to do on labor day or even veteran's day. To this end I would put new (or move existing) holidays to times when people already have holiday-ish stuff they want to do. Make Halloween a holiday (Or make 10/31 a holiday that at least doesn't thematically conflict with Halloween). Move memorial day to around Easter (kind of fits right?). Put something in August because it's hot out and will be an easy sell.

That said, I'm an ED nurse so the fuck do I care.

Expand full comment

When I interned in Congress, I pushed the idea of making Opening Day of baseball season a federal holiday, which I think is a great idea both politically and on the merits

Expand full comment

I always loved that episode of the Weeds because it was bringing academic rigour to something I had observed in my own life - then I worked in universities, and the christmas break was great because nearly the whole university was off, so you could genuinely switch off because nothing was happening at work. Even if you were at a loose end and felt like doing some work, there was no point, because nobody would get back to you. I think it would be call to have a week in July or August that was a mandated holiday or at the very least a long week.

Expand full comment

How about Earth Day?

Expand full comment

Once we adopt an absolute hereditary monarchy with King Obama the First, his birthday (Aug 4) will be well timed to fill the lull between Independence Day (now, “We were wrong to reject monarchy Day”) and Labor Day.

Expand full comment

More 3-day weekends is a mini-step to the permanent 4-day work week. 50% more leisure time built into the system combined with reduced commuting (for those who still commute) by 20% would improve the economy in untold ways, and reduce carbon emissions in the process.

You can read more about this and other novel win/win/win policy prescriptions in my political manifesto, available upon request!

Expand full comment

(borrowing some of the ideas in the threads)

- Election Day

- Opening Day

- Super Bowl Hangover Recovery Day (Monday after super bowl)

- Democracy Resilience Day (Jan 6, the day we stood up to the insurrectionists)

- Tax Day

Also, generally, we need more holidays in March (maybe St. Patricks Day?), and August (I dunno, make something up, Slow Boring Day?)

Expand full comment

We should have Vernal Equinox Day and Autumnal Equinox Day as holidays like Japan

Expand full comment

I think changing Columbus Day to either Indigenous Peoples Day or Italian American Heritage Day would be good. Whichever one isn’t chosen could be given its own day as a new holiday.

Expand full comment

I’m at work right now! If this were a strongly coordinated holiday like Memorial Day or Labor Day I’d be getting double pay.

Expand full comment

If you are an office worker enjoying your day off you expect the stores and restaurants to be open. Sounds like a class divide issue.

Expand full comment

100% agree with the thesis, but as an exec at a healthcare company, 85% of our workforce can't take more holidays without significant impact on client care. While technology has made more holidays a viable and desirable thing for many, there's still a huge group that aren't benefited by it.

Expand full comment

I tend to agree that about one public holiday a month is about right - the UK has only eight and seven of those are concentrated into two small groups (three at Christmas and New Year, four between late March and the end of May).

I'm also very much inclined towards creating public holidays based on existing celebrations rather than trying to establish them from nothing (Juneteenth is a good example of something that was already being commemorated).

Skimming through the US list, there are no public holidays in the following months: March, April, August. The long gap from President's Day to Memorial Day is the most obvious hole in the US holiday calendar. I suspect it's partly there because Easter falls into it and lots of people do use it as a coordination point for a vacation, even without the public holiday , so the need wasn't as obvious when that was more normal than it is now. Because Easter is a moveable feast, making it a public holiday would be very difficult for both practical and First Amendment reasons, but picking a fixed date that can coincide with Easter would not be ideal either. Perhaps something in mid-March before the earliest possible Easter? Or late April/early May? Cinco de Mayo might be good (there isn't anything Hispanic on the current calendar, so that would be nice for inclusiveness).

The other large gap is from Independence Day to Labor Day. A day off at the end of July or the beginning of August would be nice, though I can't think of anything particular to commemorate

A law that would be very popular would be one saying that anyone paid a salary has the right to two days off in lieu if they are required to work on a federal or state holiday, and anyone paid hourly is entitled to double time for any hours worked on those days. That would ensure that most workplaces that don't need to be open would close, and those serving the public on public holidays would be suitably rewarded for doing so.

Expand full comment