Herman Miller Gives Employees Election Day Off To Vote

Herman Miller is leading the way in West Michigan when it comes to making sure employees have the time to get out and vote on Election Day.

According to WZZM, the furniture company made the decision back in June to give their nearly 8,000 employees the day off so they could exercise their right to have their voice heard, no matter the flexibility of their job.

Courtney Simmons, who is a senior diversity and inclusion program manager for Herman Miller Inc. told WZZM,

"We know that our employees that work in the office, many of them have a different level of flexibility to be able to do their work and to step away from their work when they need to. For other employees, they don't have that privilege as easily, especially our hourly employees that work in manufacturing or our store employees."

For employees that work outside the United States or that have voted absentee, the company is hoping they will use the time off do find ways to give back and use the test as a “day of service.”

While Michigan doesn’t have any laws the give Election Day off, our Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, has asked for businesses to think about giving employees the day off, and nationally, more large corporations, including Coca Cola, have been offering the day off like Herman Miller has here in West Michigan, WZZM reports. There’s also a proposal in Lansing to make it a holiday, but so far that proposal hasn’t been debated or voted on yet.