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👋 Good morning. If you’re still sitting on a 9pm Slack from your boss, Michigan lawmakers have your back. A proposed new bill, called the Workplace Employee Boundaries Act, would ban employers from requiring workers to answer emails, texts, or other work messages outside of their scheduled hours, unless they’re on call or it’s an emergency. This will shock your boss, but that missing comma on the third slide would not constitute an emergency.

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NEWS FLASH

🛒 Drama in aisle 5: Procter & Gamble and Albertsons teamed up to create “Rico’s Tacos,” a scripted comedy-drama series about a taco stand. Why, you might ask? The show’s one- to two-minute episodes feature P&G products and will play in 15-second teasers on digital screens in some of Albertsons’ 2.2k+ US locations. For those who get hooked while picking out produce, shoppers will be able to watch full episodes in the grocer’s app.

👴 Experience required: Ford hired 350 veteran engineers, including some former employees, after newly introduced AI systems failed to catch manufacturing issues before they reached the factory floor. Ford’s CEO said rehiring the “gray beard” engineers to train younger staff members and reprogram AI tools is paying off with hundreds of millions of dollars saved through lowered warranty and recall costs.

💧 Chugging profits: If you’re watching the World Cup this summer, you know about — and probably hate — the hydration breaks. Those breaks aren’t just giving players a chance to cool off, they’re giving Fox a chance to cash in. Analysts estimate the network could make $250m-$600m from the extra commercials squeezed into the six-minute game stoppages, with 30-second ad slots costing as much as $750k during popular matches.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

No fun: Family-owned amusement park Fun Spot America Atlanta is shutting down after 36 years, the latest regional park to feel the squeeze of a not-so-amusing industry.
Music to our sensitive ears: California will ban streaming services from playing commercials louder than the shows they're attached to, starting July 1, extending TV’s ad volume rules to platforms like Netflix.
Hands on: After settling a trade-secret lawsuit with Tesla, a former Optimus engineer raised $11m for Proception, a startup building highly dexterous robot hands that mimic human movement.
Sky-high: Domestic airfares are up 35% this summer as airlines pass rising jet fuel costs onto travelers, though international fares have climbed a more modest 15%.

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THE BIG IDEA

Should your boss be paying for your vacation?

PTO is cool. But you know what’s even cooler than getting paid while on vacation?

Getting paid while on vacation and having your boss foot the bill for all those beachside drinkies and catamaran tours, too.

The perk — AKA “PPTO,” or “paid paid time off” — is being offered by a small but growing number of companies, who are going the extra mile to not only offer paid time off but also pay for or subsidize their employees’ actual trips, per FlexJobs.

Out of office, on the house

PPTO policies, offered by companies ranging from software and healthcare startups to marketing firms, come in many forms.

BambooHR offers an annual reimbursement stipend of $2k. The one condition: sharing photos of your OOO adventures when you eventually RTO.
At software company FullContact, vacation stipends go up to $7k a year depending on tenure.
Employees of live-chat platform Olark are entitled to a $1k annual vacation bonus, but only if they take at least five consecutive days off. (Twist our arm.)
Travel companies like Expedia, TripAdvisor, and Delta Air Lines, meanwhile, are using their positions within the industry to provide free or discounted hotels, transportation, and activities.

But why…

… at a time when many companies are cutting costs and adopting “hardcore” work cultures, are some incentivizing employees to unplug for days?

Because it’s good for business — studies show that employees often return from vacation happier, more rested, and more motivated, which can also make them more productive, while paid vacations can boost employee loyalty and reduce turnover, per Inc.

FullContact claims an 85% retention rate, which Michelle Warren, the company’s VP of human resources, told CNBC is “amazing during the Great Resignation and particularly in the tech industry.”

The issue is that people aren’t taking time off: a 2025 FlexJobs study found that nearly one in four US workers hadn’t used a single vacation day in the past year, with many deterred by “heavy workloads, manager expectations, and unsupportive company cultures.”

Policies like “paid paid” vacations encourage employees to actually GTFOOO by signaling a pro-PTO culture while also removing some of the financial burden from traveling — because the only thing better than vacay has got to be doing it on your boss’s dime.

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

“Never heard of that” is a pretty good thing to be told about your business, it turns out. Here’s how one entrepreneur built a $1m biz in a hidden niche.

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

How much more likely women jobseekers on GLP-1s are to land a job within 18 months of their weight loss compared to those who aren’t taking weight loss drugs, according to a new study out of Harvard. By contrast, the positive effects of GLP-1 use on a man’s job search were much smaller.

In the age of Ozempic and facelifts, Business Insider’s Amanda Hoover writes that “hotness” has become something of a requirement for finding a job, but one that seems to disproportionately affect women… Shocking? Not at all. But heavy? As always.

AROUND THE WEB

📅 On this day: In 1905, Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity.

✈️ That’s interesting: The fastest way to board a plane — and why we don’t use it.

🎵 That’s cool: Two friends share how their friendship evolved with K-pop.

🧠 Game: Complete the circuits.

🐶 Aww: Treat time.

SHOWER THOUGHT

If a truck carrying nine cars gets into an accident with another vehicle, is it an eleven car accident, or just two? SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah and Singdhi Sokpo.

Editing by: Sara "Approving your PTO" Friedman.

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🌴 Paid paid time off