Don’t Wear Pajamas to Work Day April 16!

I am so excited to share. I finally figured it out why April is labeled Stress Awareness Month. Because April 15^th is the deadline to file personal TAXES in the United States. And some lazy (sorry, I said it) person decided a great way to reduce the stress OR to celebrate meeting the deadline was to create yet another National Observance Day – Wear Pajamas to Work Day.

It makes sense now! It has all come together in an excellent little package. I finally get it.

Tax Deadline = Stress = Celebrate After the Deadline = Wear PJs to Work.

I have talked a lot in the last few weeks about my opinion and approach to Stress Awareness month, and I still have a couple of cool shows coming up this month on my Coach, Couch, and Coffee Radio Show. Dr. Markus Wettstein, Endocrinologist, and I took a deep dive into the definition of stress, and the different stress levels, enlightening new data. Catch the episodes on my website.

I got curious about this damn PJ day which has also triggered a desire to brush up on the evolution of the United States Tax Rape – well, it does feel like that! I must dive deep – after all, my recent Facebook OMG test (an online app with various questions) said, “Based on your profile picture, your look aligns with that of a Private Investigator.” To which I responded out loud, as a health, wellness, and life coach that is the story of my life every minute of every single day!

Well…off I went to satisfy my taxation reboot. First of all, I want to say I AGREE WITH TAXES. We all need to pay for things WE ALL use and need, such as road repair, law enforcement, rescue squads, schools, paying our President’s salary (controversy they’re – not going to touch that one), and more.

Straight up – don’t send me emails stating I am off on details or not detailed enough – I am just doing some gisting here. The bottom line, since 1913, we have been paying income tax, and in 1955, the filing deadline became April 15^th.

I remember taxation went back to the Civil War when Lincoln taxed Americans to help pay for the war. Still, I had honestly forgotten about the Stamp Act of 1765 when the Brits taxed the Colonists to pay for every single piece of printed paper, including playing cards and dice-guess dice were made of paper. That surely didn’t go over well. I also learned a couple more things that made me go, hmmm: the lowest tax percent in history was 7% in 1913, and the historical high was in the 1960s with 91%. In 2016, about 80% of US tax-paying citizens hovered in the 15% tax bracket. That was shocking to me.

I did know the US has a marginal tax rate system, so we all don’t pay the same percentage of taxes (rates based on what we earn), but I learned another BIG, HUMUNGOUS tidbit. I didn’t know when you earn enough income to put you into the next higher tax bracket; only the extra income in that bracket is taxed at the higher rate, not all of your income. Why have I never known that?

Well, there it is, in my opinion; the root cause April was named Stress Awareness month. TAXES.

Now we must move on to Wear Pajamas to Work Day. I despise publicly wearing pajamas. SERIOUSLY. Come on, people. I don’t care if you ran out of bread in the middle of French Toast Sunday or not – put on some gosh dang clothes before you go to the store! Don’t be lazy. Now, if you were on the way to the ER, sure. But not to the grocery store and damn straight not to work. There I said it.

Just because the holiday exists and just because you abided by the law and filed your taxes, there is no need to partayyyy a the water cooler with your arse in a fuzzy Sponge Bob onesie.

I would rather see purple hair, a tank top, and torn jeans at work next Tuesday than frickin’ bunny slippers and what you wear between your sheets. If you want to wear pjs and celebrate, CALL IN SICK!