C’mon, Californians!

van gogh framed cropped — The “van Gogh” is “Irises,” at The Getty Museum, Los Angeles

There’s a recent commercial in which male voice deep with gravitas begins, “To Simone, I leave the van Gogh.”

“To Harrison, the wine collection.”

“Grace, you get the beach house.”

This sounds like someone reading his will.

But why?

Each bequest has an appropriate image, and as the voice continues, the images keep changing…

El-Capitan — “This rock” is El Capitan in Yosemite

“…my favorite chair…the family recipes…this rock…”

Nice images. Nice voice.

I still don’t know why.

It’s appears that we may be looking at California.

More images, more bequests, and then:

“I leave these things to my heirs, all 39 million of you…”

OK – we are looking at California. And we’re hearing California read its will.

Wait. What?

And why?

After almost 60 seconds this image appears:

And we finally learn this commercial is from Energy Upgrade California, which I’d never heard of.

A bit of research revealed it’s “a statewide initiative committed to helping Californians be more energy efficient, utilize more sustainable natural resources, reduce demand on the energy grid and make informed choices about their energy use at home and at work – all of which goes a long way for California.”

Not that Energy Upgrade asked, but I’ll suggest that Californians could be a lot more “energy efficient” if we worked less.

Less work means less “demand on the energy grid” from all those office computers and lights and landlines and heating and air conditioning and elevators and copy machines and coffee makers.

But less work and more vacation appear to be just what Californian’s aren’t doing, according to this recent article:

Californians left 97 million paid days off unused in 2017, more than any other state.

Which is ironic when you consider that California:

Is the most popular state for vacations.
Is the #1 “most fun state of 2018.”
Had over 30 cities listed on last year’s list of “most fun cities in the U.S.”

It appears that lots of people are using their vacation time to come here, while the drudges who live here mostly aren’t going…

Anywhere.

Let’s look at paid vacation time for a moment. When you take paid vacation time, your employer is paying you to not come to work. Your employer loses the benefit of your productivity, and you get paid for not being productive.

Logically, to give up that opportunity makes no sense.

Here, according to the article, are the “logical” reasons that Californians gave up 97 million paid days off:

Afraid of looking replaceable.

Don’t worry about this – you are replaceable. Everyone is replaceable. Even the president of the United States. His vice president exists solely to replace him, and if the president is replaceable, so are you.

Heavy workloads.

This is another way of saying, “I am not replaceable. I am indispensable. I am responsible for way too much important stuff to take time off.”

This suggests that you and only you can do the work you do. News flash:

Lack of coverage at work.

This isn’t your challenge – coverage is your manager’s challenge. Your challenge is deciding which beach you’re headed for on vacation, and which fruity, tropical drink you’ll enjoy on that beach.

happy-dogs-smiling-fb__700 cropped — You just told him you’re going on vacation.

Concerns about leaving pets behind.

Seriously? You’d give up that beach and that fruity, tropical drink because you think you’re indispensable to your pet? Have you talked to your pet about this?

The article concludes with some statistics comparing the no-vacation drudges to people who use their paid time off. No surprise – those who take vacations are: