California unveils resources to ease concerns of returning state workers

From childcare to commuting costs, state employees have a host of concerns about returning to pre-pandemic, in-person working conditions. And the state, in turn, is trying to make that transition as palatable as possible.

While public employees have already been working partially in-person, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to increase the minimum days in office required from two to four produced a larger wave of concern from state workers.

“There just seems to be so many more questions coming through now,” said Monica Erickson, the chief deputy director for the California Department of Human Resources. “That’s what really prompted us to say, ‘We should put something together to centralize things.’”

Last month, CalHR published a “Return To Office Resource” page highlighting existing and new benefits available to state employees preparing to be in government offices four days a week — some for the first time in over five years.

The page provides information about a range of benefits offered by the state, including payments for commuting by bicycle and mass transit subsidies. The resource list provides information about flexible work arrangements that workers can lobby for when trying to balance professional and personal needs.

“We want our state workforce to know all the benefits they have available to them, and instead of it being in all different places that they need to access, we’re really hoping to centralize all that information in one area,” Erickson said.

Erickson said CalHR worked with the State Controller’s Office to establish a special open enrollment period, extending until May 30, to allow employees to opt into a reimbursement account program, where participants can set aside pre-tax money to help cover childcare costs.

But perhaps the biggest concern employees have raised about the return of in-person work is parking.

Almost immediately after he learned about Newsom’s order, Brent Jamison thought, “We’re gonna need to do more, there’s going to be more pressure on the parking resources within the greater Sacramento area.”

The deputy director of DGS’s Interagency Support Division and his team started beefing up a map of parking structures the department had previously published.

The new map features not just the state’s garages, but also private parking lots and those operated by the city and county. The map includes information about each lot, including the cost to park there.

Jamison said his team plans to continue updating the map, which should soon have additional parking spaces after the state opens a garage at the former Department of Tax and Fee Administration building on 4th and N streets.

“It’s presently vacant, but it has a perfectly usable 700-space parking garage which we were already working on standing up before the governor’s announcement,” Jamison said. “Clearly with the governor’s announcement, it created a sense of urgency to do so.”