CA departments lacked thousands of workstations before RTO order, documents show
California state departments were short thousands of workstations needed to accommodate returning government employees ahead of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s return-to-office directive last spring, documents show.
Records submitted last spring reveal that several departments would not be able to accommodate all state employees in offices four days a week by July, when the governor’s directive went into effect. The documents provide insight into the cost and office space needed to implement the governor’s March 2025 return-to-office order -- data that lawmakers and the California State Auditor have previously, but unsuccessfully, sought to obtain from the Newsom administration.
Officials at Department of General Services, which was responsible for collecting these surveys, declined to provide these records, but several departments recently released spreadsheets submitted last spring to a state worker who provided them to The Sacramento Bee.
Last spring, the Newsom administration required departments to complete surveys on their office space needs to document how many workstations and offices were needed to accommodate state employees expected to work in person four days a week. The governor ultimately delayed his return-to-office deadline until July 2026 after negotiations with state workers’ unions.
A review of 16 departments’ surveys submitted in March and April of last year found that an additional 4,982 workstations and 697 offices would be needed to comply with Newsom’s return-to-office directive by July 2025. California’s state government is composed of over 200 departments, the vast majority of which are subject to Newsom’s return-to-office order.
Some departments reported needing zero or few additional workstations. Other large departments such as the California Department of Public Health and the Department of Health Care Services reported needing more than 1,100 workstations — for roughly one quarter of the total number of employees in each department — to bring workers back to offices four days a week.
The surveys asked departments if offices could accommodate all returning staff by July 1, 2025. Of the 16 departments that completed this portion of the survey, they reported that 93 offices could fit employees by the governor’s deadline and 73 offices could not.
When asked for these office space surveys, several department spokespeople responded with nearly identical statements that stated these documents were not released to the public because they were considered “deliberative.” Under California’s Public Records Act, public agencies are allowed to withhold records they deem to be drafts or advisory opinions.
“The information in the surveys is outdated, not final and will not reflect the previous, current, or projected needs of RTO. Current office space projections are considered deliberative and are being withheld while being verified and as part of the budget and labor negotiations processes,” said a spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
DGS did not respond to a list of questions about the documents and current spacing needs to comply with the return-to-office order.
Office space needs still unknown
During a series of budget hearings last spring, lawmakers questioned officials from DGS, the Department of Finance and the California Department of Human Resources about state workers’ anticipated transition working in person from two to four days. Assembly members were astounded that officials couldn’t provide estimates of how much the return-to-office order would cost the state and how much more office space was needed to accommodate workers in person.
In a May 21 hearing, DGS’ then Chief Deputy Director Jennifer Osborn said, “We’re still working through how vacancies and exceptions will impact that, we don’t have an estimate at this time.”
Eight months after DGS told lawmakers it didn’t have an estimate of how much office space the state would need to house returning workers, the department has still not provided an update.
The documents highlighted some challenges departments were facing last spring, when state employees were still expecting to return to offices later that summer.
“The May Lee State Office Complex does not have sufficient parking to accommodate a 4 day RTO, nor are there alternative parking options in close proximity,” the California Department of Real Estate wrote its survey, referring to the massive office complex in Sacramento that opened in 2024.
The public health department noted that converting offices into shared or smaller work spaces could risk impacts to IT services and indoor temperature systems.
‘We all wanted to know what was going on’
After hearing department officials say that they could not provide estimates of how much office space would be needed to accommodate returning workers, a state employee began requesting the Office Space Needs Surveys from dozens of departments. Most denied his requests, but a handful turned over the documents.
“As a state worker, we all wanted to know what was going on,” said the employee, who requested anonymity because he fears retaliation from his employer.
Since Newsom’s order came down last March, some state workers have said that there isn’t enough space in their office buildings to accommodate all their colleagues. Some departments reduced their footprint in Sacramento after the COVID-19 pandemic forced many to work from home and, in the interim years, employees have adapted to sharing workstations with coworkers who are in offices on alternate days.
Over the past five years, the amount of office space leased by DGS in the Sacramento area has decreased. Those decreases have been offset by an increase in the amount of square footage owned by the state government. Much of that increase can be attributed to new buildings the state opened: the Allenby and Natural Resources buildings and the May Lee State Office Complex.
The documents confirmed state employees’ hunch that there were not enough workstations to fit everyone come July, which would create issues when workers would be left scrambling for a spot to plug in laptops.
“I could see very quickly, tabulating numbers and reading the documents, that there was a massive problem here,” the state worker who obtained the records said. “Clearly it was an issue of not wanting to be transparent about that data.”
The California State Auditor released a report in August studying the governor’s executive order that found the state could potentially save hundreds of millions of dollars by maintaining its current telework policy. Auditors also pointed out that the Governor’s Office made its return-to-office decisions based on limited data and did not gather important information before issuing its orders in April 2024 and March 2025.
The “Governor’s Office issued the executive order without determining beforehand the amount of office space needed to accommodate employees working in the office four days per week or the associated costs,” auditors wrote in August.
The report noted that as of June 2025, after departments had already submitted surveys to DGS, the state had still not determined how much space was needed.
$1 million annually for one floor
The documents offer an insight into how much the transition to a four-day, in-person schedule could cost one department.
The Department of Managed Health Care, which employs over 670 workers, reported last year that it needed 167 additional workstations and 175 additional offices to comply with the governor’s directive.
In 2022, the Department of Managed Health Care renegotiated a lease with the Park Tower Plaza in downtown Sacramento and relinquished two of the four floors used by the department while many employees were working remotely, according to records.
The department estimated that re-acquiring additional space at the Park Tower building to accommodate space needs would cost $1 million per floor annually. The department estimated an additional $600,000 would be needed to pay for equipment and other assets that were previously relinquished on the two floors of the Park Tower.
Scott Ostermiller, a DMHC attorney with the office of legal services, said in a statement that the office has not leased any additional office space at this time. The statement echoed the same response from other agencies that the information in the survey is outdated and current estimates are being withheld from the public.
Alternatively, other departments have already taken steps to prepare for this July’s upcoming transition to four days in office. The California Department of Technology reacquired 32,167 square feet of previously leased space, a spokesperson said.
“The Administration is working with departments and agencies to assess space needs, and this review will continue through the spring,” Department of Finance spokesperson H.D. Palmer said in a statement.
Palmer said the administration is still in the process of estimating how much its directive will cost California. He confirmed that the governor’s 2026-27 budget proposal doesn’t include specific funds for the transition back to offices scheduled this summer.
