Today we are very excited to announce that Omni Interactions is adding Juneteenth National Independence Day as a paid corporate holiday. We see this as the right choice to align our core values and who we want to be as the Omni team. Omni will be honoring this day of freedom to educate, build community, and celebrate.
This year, Juneteenth will fall on Sunday, June 19th but will be recognized as a holiday on Monday, June 20th. Omni will maintain regular operating hours for client delivery over the weekend and on Monday. As with all holidays, if you are unable to take this day due to work requirements, please work with your manager to take an alternate day.
What is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth is an American holiday celebrated annually on June 19 that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. On June 17, 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day was signed into law as a federal holiday in the United States.
On June 19, 1865, Union general Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas with the federal orders that all previously enslaved people in Texas were now free. Though the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed slaves in America two years earlier, Texas was the most remote of the slave states. So about 250,000 people remained slaves in Texas until Granger carried the orders to Galveston in 1865, finally ending slavery in the U.S.
Today, the holiday is celebrated across the United States with activities as diverse as readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, street fairs, rodeos, cookouts, reading the work of influential Black American writers, and more.
Why did we make Juneteenth a company holiday?
Though Juneteenth is new to Omni’s holiday calendar, this isn’t really a change. It is a reaffirmation of reaffirming what our company already believes and stands for: equality and inclusiveness lead to better teamwork and success for each of us at Omni, each of our clients and for Omni overall.
So, we see the Juneteenth holiday an opportunity — via company policy — to put those beliefs into action. Creating a paid holiday sends a signal that we’re observing something important to members of our community, and therefore, to all of us.
Thank you to the Omni People Support team for developing the plan to recognize this all-important day. Beth Capra, Chief Financial Officer and Managing Partner who also oversees the People Support organization, calls out the significance of this holiday to all people, “By recognizing this day as a corporate holiday, we want to ensure every member of the Omni corporate community not only has the time to celebrate, but also to use it as an opportunity to learn more about the holiday and why it’s so important to our country.”
