California doesn’t know the cost to bring state workers back to offices
Department officials said they had not conducted a state-wide cost analysis of the governor’s return-to-office order in response to lawmakers’ questions about the financial impact of the policy.
Assemblymembers expressed skepticism with the governor’s order and its cost to California and state employees during a Tuesday Budget Subcommittee hearing focused on state administration. Those concerns were echoed by dozens of state employees who attended the hearing to testify about how Gov. Gavin Newsom’s March executive order would negatively affect them.
Last month, Newsom surprised many when he informed the roughly 95,000 state employees who work remotely part of the week that they would be expected to return to offices four days a week starting in July.
“I think that we absolutely should be looking at things through a cost lens, especially in a very difficult state budget year right now where we are trying to save every nickel that we can find,” said Assemblymember Christopher Ward, D-San Diego, in response to officials from the California Department of Human Resources and the Department of General Services acknowledging that they didn’t know how much the return-to-office order would cost the state.
“Is this the year that we would want to, just overnight, implement something that might actually put a lot more pressures on us?” Ward asked.
The Democrat also raised concerns about whether Newsom followed state laws surrounding collective bargaining when he changed the state’s telework policy last month.
Ward said we are in a new era of work, one where state employees have adapted to performing their job remotely. While in-person work has benefits, Ward acknowledged, the extent to which state workers need to be in offices two days versus four days a week should be open for discussion.
“I don’t feel like a discussion has been well had,” Ward said.
He said that remote work has improved state employees’ well-being, adding that happy workers are more productive. Ward said he hopes the governor’s administration can look at all the options and roll out the return-to-office order more slowly.
A wide range of state workers attended Tuesday’s hearing to express their concerns, many of which have been regularly raised by public employees and their unions, such as the environmental impact and increased traffic caused by more commuters.
Pete Nelson, a senior environmental scientist with the Department of Water Resources, said the increased number of cars on the road will negatively affect the ecological health of the Central Valley. Additionally, Nelson said under this rule he won’t be able to continue commuting from Santa Cruz four days a week.
“I’m not going to stick around if this policy is maintained,” Nelson said.
Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-La Palma, shared many of the state workers’ anxieties, particularly those related to affordability.
The subcommittee chair said the reason Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election was because voters believed President Donald Trump would be able to bring down the cost of basic goods. Newsom’s return-to-office order is another example of politicians being seen as out of touch with affordability concerns, she said.
“If we cannot get this straight, we are doing a disservice to the state,” Quirk-Silva said.
Lawmakers also questioned how the state would accommodate state workers in offices four days a week when some employees share desks with their colleagues, a practice the state refers to as “hoteling.”
When Quirk-Silva asked if the state planned to have each returning employee an assigned workplace, DGS’ Chief Deputy Director Jason Kenny replied, “That’s the goal, yes.”
The audience, composed mostly of state employees who believed that an unrealistic objective, burst out in laughter.
Kenny said that most departments did not downsize during the pandemic but some additional space would be required by this summer. He said DGS was still in the process of working with departments to determine where and how much additional office space would be required.
To assist with the transition, CalHR’s Chief Deputy Director Monica Erickson pointed to childcare benefits offered by the state, generous public transit stipends and efforts to expand the amount of parking for employees. Kenny said the state was looking into opening a new 700-spot garage in the downtown area.
“We’re doing everything we possibly can to find as many resources and just options for our state employees to make this transition as simple as possible,” Erickson said.
This story was originally published April 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
