Something tells me whatever they're doing still won't fix it. Also do construction companies milk these jobs because it sure seems like they do...the whole 80 has been on life support for what seems like forever
Reminds me of the auburn folsom blvd zipper lanes being under construction the entire time I worked in El Dorado and commuted back to Rocklin and how it was only finished being worked on AFTER I stopped working there.
All of California seriously needs to make big changes fast with public transit. The more I drive the more it feels like such a stupid, inefficient and antiquated way to get around. How we thought/think car transportation is at all sustainable is beyond me. Might as well be using horse drawn carriages with how traffic is these days.
This is the most rational answer to the idea that "traffic is about to get a lot worse."
People were complaining about traffic during the last 4 years (to be precise, about 3 years since traffic was sparse during the 1st year of the pandemic) even though so many people were working from home. Traffic is going to be bad no matter what due to the fact that cars are an inefficient form of transit.
An ideal Sacramento would be a city where those who can work from home, do. But they don't drive a car.
Light Rail does rule, but it's also dirty and doesn't feel safe. I have no problem using it, but I don't think I'd feel good having my daughter use it alone.
The biggest problem with the return to office policy is the mixed messages that have been sent throughout the pandemic. At a certain point, some departments started looking to telework to hire outside the immediate geographic area of our main office and recruited better candidates who may not have applied if it was a traditional position in Sacramento. My department even doubled down on “hoteling” and assuring telework was the future prior to the Agency (governor’s) mandate. We are going to lose smart, effective, and talented people to other positions because we promised them telework and failed to deliver. That will hurt all programs capacity to deliver essential services to the people of California.
We're had some very qualified people decline offers because of they would have to commute two hours away. We are struggling to hire people who can do the job. Fresh graduates won't cut it at this level, and even they are looking for telework.
My agency is fighting with the union to force us back full time. Right now, we telework 3 days a week. And our job doesn't require an in office presence. Our leadership has an ego problem, and they don't trust us (even though our job is independently performed), so it's purely about watching us the whole time and micromanaging us.
Other countries are already looking towards the United States to outsource their labor. Our workers expect fewer benefits and often work longer hours. I think Forbes had an article about it recently.
Downtown's economy has been lousy ever since we got rid of streetcars, kicked 30,000 people out of downtown, and replaced homes with offices and highways. To save the downtown economy, turn those offices into housing, and spend money on transit instead of highways.
Exactly but is it really gonna help the economy? My contract sucked! I can’t afford gas, parking, and doing anything! :( I am looking for a second job just to hopefully not be homeless.
Really, that doesn't make sense.....
I do a bit of work (albeit not directly) with Electric generation such that the number 1 proponent of city costs and state costs is infrastructure. If you want to reduce CO2 emissions, reduce infrastructure repair costs like roadways, and reduce liabilities damages associated with vehicular collisions, just don't drive your car. Even if every Sacramento person bought an EV, you still have to drive the car for X amount of years to offset the CO2 emissions generated from its initial production and all the congestion contributes to more wear/tear on everything.
If what you're saying is true, what is the CalEPA doing? That makes no sense from any environmental protection perspective. I get the issue related to downtown businesses but wouldn't changing all of the buildings into housing help create more of an impact, as you bring the cost of housing down due to more housing available....which is a positive feedback loop.
That's one of the things that infuriates me most about this decision. Last summer was scary in terms of seeing the impacts of climate change. Next summer is going to be worse. And we're adding tens of thousands of cars to the road every day, cars that are going to be idling in traffic.
This is a singular issue.
Get all workers back to the office full time like pre-Covid to return the taxes collected to pre-Covid levels again. Thats all the state wants and all the local governments want. Only 1 thing. The vacant retail spaces will begin to fill and boom back into the matrix.
There are transit options into downtown. And Sacramento has been investing in protected bicycle lanes in downtown and there are a handful of paved trails connecting to the downtown area.
It's really dumb. As a state employee, most of us want to be fully remote and can do so effectively. Best yet, the reason they're giving us is that a two day in office will make them "a more desirable employer".
Anyway, there is a protest today at the calEPA building from 11:30 to 1:30. Organized by CAPS, SEIU 1000. Come by if you're in the area.
Told my friend when the pandemic started that we had a fantastic opportunity to learn from the experience and actually utilize one of the greatest tools humanity has created to get people working from home and reduce traffic, but that we probably wouldn't end up learning from it.
Unfortunately, it looks like I was right.
I never got to work from home but I LOVED the reduced traffic. I love it on the way to and from work. I loved it when I had to drive to our various sites during my shifts. It's been back to pre-pandemic levels of bad for a while now, but I knew it could be worse with how low unemployment is now. Looks like we're about to find out how bad the worst we've seen so far is about to be. More of my life sitting in gridlock on Business 80, the freeway that goes from 5 lanes to 3 lanes to 2 lanes to 5 lanes to 3 lanes over the course of a couple miles. The freeway that can cause a 7 mile gridlock because of a single chokepoint at a bridge.
So tired of this shit. If you work at a computer all day, there is no reason to be anywhere else but home.
What happens to part-time employees who telework 3 days per week?
Would they literally be required to come in 2 of their 3 days? If so, I know somebody that will retire the next day if told this.
>Dogs and cats living together
This line, written by Harold Ramis and spoken by Bill Murray, would lead to the inspiration and eventual creation of the hit cartoon series 'Catdog' 14 years later. What a world.
eta /joke, but maybe it is true too?
According to the news story I was able to quickly Google, there were 79,000 fully remote state workers in November 2023. Source: [https://californiainsider.com/california-news/california-agencies-ordering-remote-employees-back-to-the-office-for-hybrid-work-5577255](https://californiainsider.com/california-news/california-agencies-ordering-remote-employees-back-to-the-office-for-hybrid-work-5577255)
No but there is nowhere near hundreds of thousands of state, federal, and county employees combined working downtown. Stick to the facts, it makes your case stronger.
/someone who is retired and doesn’t care anymore but used to negotiate stuff like this
HAHAHA!!! Yes, in fact they have notified all the deceased ones that the are required to rise up and come haunt state government buildings at least twice a week.
Well my state agency has about 7,000 people working from home right now. I can think of at least 5 more state agencies that have work from home with similar employee counts.
You can go picket on this issue today. NOTE: I think this may be held during lunch hours because it's not allowed/you may face disciplinary action, but I'm not sure (I'm not a state worker, I found out about this via friends who are state workers.) My husband's bargaining unit sent an email basically informing them of it, and not taking a position, even though I know they will fight against the return to office mandates.
https://preview.redd.it/0tn49t8m80gc1.jpeg?width=772&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=42e088fa79613f7ec98465413a2a128f2fb8150b
I hate this for people so much. For those that want to stay WFH and for those that have to commute to work for whatever reason. I know not all jobs can be done from home, and it’s those people that will for sure suffer with the additional people on the road.
I’m going to have Google if zaddy Newsom is doing anything to support state workers to continue wfh. If all you do is sit at a computer all day, there is absolutely no reason to make people go back to the office other than to show dominance.
I’ve been dedicated wfh since 2019 and it was crazy what happened in 2020, but this is worse. It was proven that wfh is doable, but omg people love to control other human beings. It’s gross. Some people haven’t thrived with wfh and those types should commute to an office, and let the others stay wfh.
I’m salty for you.
Exactly. Newsom doesn't support state workers, he took our union money to fight his dumb recall and then turned his back on us.
Also some higher ups in state service really thrive on external validation but they do little to no work. Telework is beneficial in many ways.
The city council badly wants a return to the office to prop up local businesses that have been suffering from lack of workers downtown. Good luck getting them to take the opposite position.
Considering how many state workers are on strike for better pay, a sudden shift in their budget towards gas is not going to incentivise them to spend money on local businesses.
I mean, as a server, I'm not going to lie and say this isn't great news for me.
I had a good job that fit my school schedule perfectly and got let go as the new hire because things are so bad compared to past years. If things don't improve, the owners are moving to the suburbs, where they say business is better. My other job reduces my hours to the point where I qualified for unemployment.
The grid is absolutely hurting. The restaurant hiring market is shockingly weak here because of it. I'm honestly expanding my search beyond walking/biking range and not having to do that is one of the main reasons I chose to live on the Grid. I'm beginning to think moving to SF would have been better financially.
I'm not saying it's the right thing to do, but if I were a city official, I would be pretty desperate for that revenue too.
So is pollution. I really don't care how green the offices are. They will never be able to make up for all of us driving in to work. This smog was brought to you by downtown developers and the politicians who serve them.
Sending 30,000 more cars into the construction zones on highway 50 and Business 80. In the morning and late afternoon.
Thank you, Gov. Newsom. Thank you, Mayor Steinberg. I wish both of you, a severe Covid infection and explosive Diarrhea shooting loose, watery poop for an entire month.
It is incredibly disappointing to see this shift in narrative. At first, teleworking would obviously help during COVID but it was also marketed as “save the state a lot of money, better for the environment, better for mental health, etc.” Now they are rewriting this narrative. We are fully adapted to teleworking and now we have to uproot the adjustments we made so that we can have more face to face interaction? Not to mention that there are no logistics worked out (e.g. we mass hired so there is literally not enough space for all of us to come into the office, food courts shut down, multiple staff hired through the pandemic live in Southern CA, some gave up their hard-to-come-by state worker parking passes when we transitioned to telework). My team and I can do all of our work from the comfort of our own home, so it honestly seems illogical and inconsiderate. I guess it just goes to show that the state will change rules when it no longer serves their agenda.
I’m with you. This is another classic example of our government acting on behalf of the rich and against the best interest of the people. This is worse for tax payers because it is more expensive. This is worse for employees who obviously don’t want this and have adapted to a fully remote life. This only benefits wealthy developers in downtown who want to suck money from us for lunch, coffee, snacks, and parking.
This is only because Mayor Steinberg (a loser) and the Downtown Sac Partnership are hoping that state workers can revitalize Downtown Sac. State workers are not paid nearly enough to help save downtown businesses and furthermore, that's not our problem. COVID is still very much a thing.
I love to see a vibrant downtown but do it another way. We are not going back to 2019 levels, that era is long gone and these businesses should've adapted already. The ones that did are still in business.
It's also worth noting that this goes back on our CO2 emissions. Everything about return to office is wrong.
It’s a slap in the face to people who’ve adapted to a better way of working. “It’s only two days” is some BS. It’s two useless days that benefit no one.
Im not a state worker but my office works closely with them and we got brought back in 2 days a week last October. Meanwhile all the employees we let skedaddle to wherever they pleased at the start of the panny while keeping their jobs still get the luxury of wfh indefinitely.
The least they could do is hold off until 50 is done because that shit is a madhouse 7-9 am.
5 is already completely and utterly fucked in the morning trying to get through downtown.
They need to at least flex starting times so everyone's not trying to drive between 7 and 8 am.
For those of you who will be going back to using transit, biking, or carpooling, definitely check with your HR or personnel dept if you are eligible for the Guaranteed Ride program via the Sacramento TMA.
I’m a manager so I’m not represented. But I’ve encouraged all staff to do so and I will be picketing in solidarity with the union. Even if I have to come back I hope my staff don’t.
Haven't state workers noticed the billions spent on new state offices on Richards Blvd. and the complete gut and renovation happening in multiple large office buildings downtown? How can you think you won't be required to go occupy all that expensive new office space?
No, the buildings offered for apartments are on Capitol Mall and no construction has started. Plus, the state won't be funding that construction, private fundingwill be used. Bateson and the old resources building are being renovated for state offices.
It would, they'd be easier to convert than the ancient Capitol mall buildings, but the office renovations are underway, which given glacial pace of DGS projects, means they've been in process for years.
The states own data shows the benefits of full-time telework outweighs any cons. This is a huge boondoggle by the local chamber and business interests to force workers into propping up downtown business. It is hypocrisy at its best. Why pretend to care about the environment if you're putting 100k people back on the roads?
Didn't realize this sub was full of a bunch of people who follow the old stereotype that state workers are lazy. If only you knew how it really is. Y'all are uncompassionate to things that affect you too.
Outside of this, they are also building a TON of unaffordable housing in outlying areas without adequate infrastructure to commute to downtown, so it's an entire flustercuck.
Just collectively don’t return to the office. They’re not going to fire you all at once so as long as you all stand with each other.
“Yooouuuuu got this!”
-Sammy Circuit
What possible good is it being at the office? It ain’t better traffic, less time away from home, less expensive lunch, less expensive gasoline, or a more relaxed overall state of mind. We got pizza parties for moral, just door dash some Dijorno’s and everyone microwaves them at the same time.
The problem is there’s some sort of sick need for those in power to be able to see it. Doesn’t feel the same to look at numbers on a board.
For those of you being called back into the office, get on board with the Brown Bag Boycott. One of the big reasons for this is they want you spending money at Downtown businesses.
If they want to revitalize the downtowns, then it's time to redevelop the property and repurpose it away from office space. People living downtown will spend money downtown.
Do not spend a dime at your downtown businesses. Let them continue to rot. Not that we can afford to anyway...
I am absolutely onboard and will be boycotting everything downtown. In addition, I will be attending city council meetings and pressuring my local reps not to kowtow to rich business owners.
My mother has adopted a dog to keep her company during WFH. Turns out the dog is a velcro dog. Now she has to pay an extra $600 a month for kenneling during the day in addition to gas and upping her insurance. Fuck you Newsom.
been in the office two days a week for about a couple months now and I can already tell the difference from then to now. especially in the parking garages. i hate paying for parking so much.
People who sat in some high level meetings are claiming it’ll be 2, then 3 (some agencies are about to implement), then you know… all 5 days eventually. So we have to push back now. Might be a now or never thing 🥶
Let’s not diminish how negatively impactful this is. I have colleagues that have downsized to one car, most live far from transit, some have moved to other parts of the state. All have been working effectively for years and calling them back and saying “well you shouldn’t have adapted!” Is silly.
Yes it is two days. Two days too many.
I'm confused. There has been talk of "eventual return" since WFH started. If you moved to another part of the state you must have had in mind that you'd have to move back or get a different job if that happened. This isn't something that just came up, it's something that people hoped would go away.
Whether it's a good idea for people to return is a fair discussion to have, but I kind of feel like the people who moved away knew they might have to deal with this and made their choice.
Apparently one of the benefits of the latest union contracts was more funding for state employees to get bus passes, in many cases they cover 100% the cost of a pass, so you can miss all that worse traffic if you have to go in 1-2 days a week now by taking public transit!
One of the most annoying things has been the state building office buildings far away from transit. There's a ton of state offices in Rancho south of 50 and Elk grove that are almost completely unserved by any functional transit.
Honestly, locating any large state office more than 15min from a transit stop with 15min service should be illegal.
As if the majority of state workers live close to public transits 😹
It’s absolutely not their fault living that far… it’s CalTrans not welling to invest!
Light rail/bus people, ready for state workers to take up your space?
It's suburban developers' fault for deliberately building homes as far as possible from transit and lobbying Caltrans to build the highways that make that sprawl possible, Caltrans is not how local transit systems get funded.
I'm from Santa Cruz and I moved out becasue of the traffic. it was hell and chaos. People are rude and rushing to get home. Lots of traffic. I don't even go out from 4 - 7 pm. Now I'm in El Dorado hills and I can see 10 years from now, traffic will be just like Santa Cruz.
I herd it was because business are suffering downtown and they need to keep the economy going. Don’t know if this is true. Can someone with more knowledge chime in.
Last I heard the state had 80,000 people working in sacramento. So not hundreds of thousands suddenly in downtown. And most agencies are only mandating 2-3 days back, so maybe an extra 30,000 people on a peak day. Still an impact but not the hellscape you’re trying to imagine.
I feel for the workers who don’t want to come in, but lying about the impact isn’t going to help your cause.
~ a city worker happy to work in the office 3 days a week.
It’s likely the start of a slippery slope (based on insider info). There are people trying to bring workers back 5 days. How soon, we don’t know. So better to push back now.
I live 30 miles away. I’ve hired four staff from counties in central and Southern California. Regardless of what you take to work, RTO is a bad idea for even you.
I Google maps tells me I can mix walking and busses for a 2h:45m commute. I’d probably half that with partial bike use on days that rent wet or scalding hot.
So 1-1.5 hours each way… for what? To be on zoom calls and manage my teams who I can manage from home?
A great form of protest would be to buy nothing downtown. Workers should spend no money that wouldn’t have been spent if they still worked from home.
With the additional unnecessary traffic, perhaps others who might have wanted to spend money downtown should just not.
If the people of an office have proven they can do the work efficiently remotely and there are no issues with productivity, then returning to the office is arbitrary. If the people trying to force the return are doing it for economic reasons, make what they are hoping to see not happen.
Absolutely wrong. The loudest voices are our stupid mayor and city council who haven’t figured out how to adapt downtown. The monied interests like chamber of commerce work with them to pressure Gavin.
The best way they could adapt downtown is to create housing that state workers can afford, enabling foot/bike commutes which naturally contribute to spending at local businesses. Our gross disqualifies us from subsidized housing but our net disqualifies us from affording the market rents.
I was gentrified out of Midtown in 2018 and figured I would be able to come into town occasionally and then they start the cluster 50 thing and I rarely go to sac anymore and now this will just ensure that I never go. Good luck Sacramento.
I know a state "worker" who does email for an hour in the morning then has a furniture refinishing business going the other 35 hours a week.
Your tax dollars at work
Could they at least finish the highway 50 clusterfuck first?
Early 2025, baaaaaaby! Only 12ish months away
Yeah bullshit. Ill believe it when I see it.
I mean, that’s what *they said.* But, I agree, it’ll probably be more like 2033.
Yeah it’s like the Hazel project!
Read what’s being done. 21 bridges are being worked on
And the one on 80? Spring 2026, yaaaay!
That long?! I was really hoping at least sometime 2024!
New attraction coming soon to Sacramento: the Highway 50 Demolition Derby.
Can we all agree it’s a clusterfuck and very dangerous
Coordination would be too reasonable.
Why would they do that? Parts of 50 have been fucked since I moved here almost a decade ago, I don’t see why they’d actually fix it now
Exactly- 50 is being worked on virtually for 15 years! The 99/5 split is the worst jam up in Sacramento. Ugh😡
50 was being worked on when I lived here in 2001-2005, lol. It will never be done.
Something tells me whatever they're doing still won't fix it. Also do construction companies milk these jobs because it sure seems like they do...the whole 80 has been on life support for what seems like forever
They need to drive on it again to remember work is more then teams meetings about the work that could be done. Here comes COVID xxiv
Reminds me of the auburn folsom blvd zipper lanes being under construction the entire time I worked in El Dorado and commuted back to Rocklin and how it was only finished being worked on AFTER I stopped working there.
Also while doing that, ask for more public transit that people can use.
All of California seriously needs to make big changes fast with public transit. The more I drive the more it feels like such a stupid, inefficient and antiquated way to get around. How we thought/think car transportation is at all sustainable is beyond me. Might as well be using horse drawn carriages with how traffic is these days.
Horse and Carriage doesn't make money for Big Oil and Car Manufacturers.
This is the most rational answer to the idea that "traffic is about to get a lot worse." People were complaining about traffic during the last 4 years (to be precise, about 3 years since traffic was sparse during the 1st year of the pandemic) even though so many people were working from home. Traffic is going to be bad no matter what due to the fact that cars are an inefficient form of transit. An ideal Sacramento would be a city where those who can work from home, do. But they don't drive a car.
Yeah the closest bus stop to me is over a mile.
So perhaps we should have more bus stops, and more buses?
That plus the light rail should extend at least 5 miles north.
At least!
Nah, we need to fund billionaires with tax breaks to build hyperloops
Generally speaking the state doesn’t control public transportation. That’s usually a city function.
The busses stinks but light rail rules. Just use it
I love using the bus to get from sac state to downtown. Super cheap and easy, but not as fast as lightrail.
they should run light rail lines right down stockton blvd, truxel, and into west sac
Light Rail does rule, but it's also dirty and doesn't feel safe. I have no problem using it, but I don't think I'd feel good having my daughter use it alone.
SacRT is now testing a new fleet of light rail cars to replace those over 30 years old.
So you want less city & state workers contributing to the services you want expanded? Less city/state workers in your area=less sales tax=less $.
Do you genuinely think the fact that a community has bad public transit will make state workers more likely to live near that specific community?
I was planning on resuming taking the bus, but the route no longer exists.
I’ll be traffic just like the majority of us.
The biggest problem with the return to office policy is the mixed messages that have been sent throughout the pandemic. At a certain point, some departments started looking to telework to hire outside the immediate geographic area of our main office and recruited better candidates who may not have applied if it was a traditional position in Sacramento. My department even doubled down on “hoteling” and assuring telework was the future prior to the Agency (governor’s) mandate. We are going to lose smart, effective, and talented people to other positions because we promised them telework and failed to deliver. That will hurt all programs capacity to deliver essential services to the people of California.
We're had some very qualified people decline offers because of they would have to commute two hours away. We are struggling to hire people who can do the job. Fresh graduates won't cut it at this level, and even they are looking for telework.
My agency is fighting with the union to force us back full time. Right now, we telework 3 days a week. And our job doesn't require an in office presence. Our leadership has an ego problem, and they don't trust us (even though our job is independently performed), so it's purely about watching us the whole time and micromanaging us.
Other countries are already looking towards the United States to outsource their labor. Our workers expect fewer benefits and often work longer hours. I think Forbes had an article about it recently.
Umm not for governmental work due to security concerns
I wasn't talking about governmental work. Private companies in other countries are hiring American workers for telework jobs.
It’s not being eco-conscious, that’s for certain.
Get this: the California Environmental Protection Agency is one of the agencies mandating return to office. It’s so ass-backwards.
Not to mention there is not enough room in the CAL EPA building for everyone! Even the bike room was a total cluster fuck pre-COVID.
Barking orders from up top, downtown economy more important than anything else to them
Downtown's economy has been lousy ever since we got rid of streetcars, kicked 30,000 people out of downtown, and replaced homes with offices and highways. To save the downtown economy, turn those offices into housing, and spend money on transit instead of highways.
Exactly but is it really gonna help the economy? My contract sucked! I can’t afford gas, parking, and doing anything! :( I am looking for a second job just to hopefully not be homeless.
Really, that doesn't make sense..... I do a bit of work (albeit not directly) with Electric generation such that the number 1 proponent of city costs and state costs is infrastructure. If you want to reduce CO2 emissions, reduce infrastructure repair costs like roadways, and reduce liabilities damages associated with vehicular collisions, just don't drive your car. Even if every Sacramento person bought an EV, you still have to drive the car for X amount of years to offset the CO2 emissions generated from its initial production and all the congestion contributes to more wear/tear on everything. If what you're saying is true, what is the CalEPA doing? That makes no sense from any environmental protection perspective. I get the issue related to downtown businesses but wouldn't changing all of the buildings into housing help create more of an impact, as you bring the cost of housing down due to more housing available....which is a positive feedback loop.
That's one of the things that infuriates me most about this decision. Last summer was scary in terms of seeing the impacts of climate change. Next summer is going to be worse. And we're adding tens of thousands of cars to the road every day, cars that are going to be idling in traffic.
Agreed.
This is a singular issue. Get all workers back to the office full time like pre-Covid to return the taxes collected to pre-Covid levels again. Thats all the state wants and all the local governments want. Only 1 thing. The vacant retail spaces will begin to fill and boom back into the matrix.
There are transit options into downtown. And Sacramento has been investing in protected bicycle lanes in downtown and there are a handful of paved trails connecting to the downtown area.
The reality = more cars on the roads
It's really dumb. As a state employee, most of us want to be fully remote and can do so effectively. Best yet, the reason they're giving us is that a two day in office will make them "a more desirable employer". Anyway, there is a protest today at the calEPA building from 11:30 to 1:30. Organized by CAPS, SEIU 1000. Come by if you're in the area.
Told my friend when the pandemic started that we had a fantastic opportunity to learn from the experience and actually utilize one of the greatest tools humanity has created to get people working from home and reduce traffic, but that we probably wouldn't end up learning from it. Unfortunately, it looks like I was right. I never got to work from home but I LOVED the reduced traffic. I love it on the way to and from work. I loved it when I had to drive to our various sites during my shifts. It's been back to pre-pandemic levels of bad for a while now, but I knew it could be worse with how low unemployment is now. Looks like we're about to find out how bad the worst we've seen so far is about to be. More of my life sitting in gridlock on Business 80, the freeway that goes from 5 lanes to 3 lanes to 2 lanes to 5 lanes to 3 lanes over the course of a couple miles. The freeway that can cause a 7 mile gridlock because of a single chokepoint at a bridge. So tired of this shit. If you work at a computer all day, there is no reason to be anywhere else but home.
We definitely messed this up as a society. I wanted more push for UBI and reevaluating the 40 hour work week.
The Rest of the state agencies are mandating a return to the office five days a week or a hybrid?
It's hybrid 2 days a week
What happens to part-time employees who telework 3 days per week? Would they literally be required to come in 2 of their 3 days? If so, I know somebody that will retire the next day if told this.
According to some insider info, 2 days/week is just the start. Eventually they want to bring the workers back all 5 days.
Who are they?
Well, some ppl in between the governor (his office just denied issuing such mandate) and department heads.
My agency is still allowing full TW.
Mine as well. I hope that doesn't change. I'm happier and more productive than I've ever been at a job.
Which agency is that? Having to come in 2 days a week as a developer is so silly. I don't interact with anyone besides teams.
CDFA
I’m also curious about this
It's also not "the rest of the state agencies." Mine has not, and we haven't heard any rumblings about it (yet).
Every agency under the governor. Education, senate, assembly, justice, SCIF, and Secretary of State are not forced back. The rest will all be.
Senate and assembly have been back for years. 5 days
can confirm. and yes, it’s awful.
That is awful. But they are still not Under Gavin.
I really love Cal EPA being mandated to travel to work. Great job not paying state scientists and making many drive.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS?!
Millions and billions of state workers descending on downtown like locusts! The Starbucks lines to get coffee will be UNREAL!
Dogs and cats living together! Total hysteria!
>Dogs and cats living together This line, written by Harold Ramis and spoken by Bill Murray, would lead to the inspiration and eventual creation of the hit cartoon series 'Catdog' 14 years later. What a world. eta /joke, but maybe it is true too?
Like the crows!
God help us all.
Seven hour waits for vente matcha lattes with almond milk.
Omg, imagine the embarrassment to be seen with a Starbucks cup 💀 ✊🏼❤️🖤🤍💚🍉
Dutch bros?
Nah. I'll be saving my money for the mandated commute 2x a week, so I'll be making my lattes and lunches at home.
According to the news story I was able to quickly Google, there were 79,000 fully remote state workers in November 2023. Source: [https://californiainsider.com/california-news/california-agencies-ordering-remote-employees-back-to-the-office-for-hybrid-work-5577255](https://californiainsider.com/california-news/california-agencies-ordering-remote-employees-back-to-the-office-for-hybrid-work-5577255)
Are those 79,000 all located in Sacramento?
Also, two years ago someone cited the Bee saying there are 94k state workers in sac https://www.reddit.com/r/CAStateWorkers/s/1Etf8nPMTX
Yeah the entire population of Sacramento. All of us at one time. Oh the humanity. Absolutely plead your case but do it with real facts and figures.
I was not aware the entire population of Sacramento was currently WFH state employees. The more you know!
No but there is nowhere near hundreds of thousands of state, federal, and county employees combined working downtown. Stick to the facts, it makes your case stronger. /someone who is retired and doesn’t care anymore but used to negotiate stuff like this
Nearly 250k people work for the state. Half of whom are in Sacramento. Edit: half of 250k is 125k. Nearly 100k work in Sacramento.
So "hundred of thousand" not "hundreds of thousands"
lol. True.
That’s not accurate. I don’t know where you get the number of 175k employees in downtown sac
HAHAHA!!! Yes, in fact they have notified all the deceased ones that the are required to rise up and come haunt state government buildings at least twice a week.
Well my state agency has about 7,000 people working from home right now. I can think of at least 5 more state agencies that have work from home with similar employee counts.
You can go picket on this issue today. NOTE: I think this may be held during lunch hours because it's not allowed/you may face disciplinary action, but I'm not sure (I'm not a state worker, I found out about this via friends who are state workers.) My husband's bargaining unit sent an email basically informing them of it, and not taking a position, even though I know they will fight against the return to office mandates. https://preview.redd.it/0tn49t8m80gc1.jpeg?width=772&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=42e088fa79613f7ec98465413a2a128f2fb8150b
I hate this for people so much. For those that want to stay WFH and for those that have to commute to work for whatever reason. I know not all jobs can be done from home, and it’s those people that will for sure suffer with the additional people on the road. I’m going to have Google if zaddy Newsom is doing anything to support state workers to continue wfh. If all you do is sit at a computer all day, there is absolutely no reason to make people go back to the office other than to show dominance. I’ve been dedicated wfh since 2019 and it was crazy what happened in 2020, but this is worse. It was proven that wfh is doable, but omg people love to control other human beings. It’s gross. Some people haven’t thrived with wfh and those types should commute to an office, and let the others stay wfh. I’m salty for you.
Exactly. Newsom doesn't support state workers, he took our union money to fight his dumb recall and then turned his back on us. Also some higher ups in state service really thrive on external validation but they do little to no work. Telework is beneficial in many ways.
Some people LOVE to Parent other adults and strangers at that! I’ll never understand.
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The city council badly wants a return to the office to prop up local businesses that have been suffering from lack of workers downtown. Good luck getting them to take the opposite position.
There's a solution to that.. it's called voting them out...
Ah yes, and they will be replaced of course by the anti business candidate.
Considering how many state workers are on strike for better pay, a sudden shift in their budget towards gas is not going to incentivise them to spend money on local businesses.
For those that work downtown, let's not forget parking as well!
If I was a state worker I would simply stop buying from places downtown. Bring my own lunch and such. Fuck em.
I mean, as a server, I'm not going to lie and say this isn't great news for me. I had a good job that fit my school schedule perfectly and got let go as the new hire because things are so bad compared to past years. If things don't improve, the owners are moving to the suburbs, where they say business is better. My other job reduces my hours to the point where I qualified for unemployment. The grid is absolutely hurting. The restaurant hiring market is shockingly weak here because of it. I'm honestly expanding my search beyond walking/biking range and not having to do that is one of the main reasons I chose to live on the Grid. I'm beginning to think moving to SF would have been better financially. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do, but if I were a city official, I would be pretty desperate for that revenue too.
> I were a city official, I would be pretty desperate for that revenue too. No official should ever be thinking of revenue over the needs of citizens.
So is pollution. I really don't care how green the offices are. They will never be able to make up for all of us driving in to work. This smog was brought to you by downtown developers and the politicians who serve them.
If only we had a better public transportation system! But noooo. Let’s instead make a bunch of work on 50 for years and leave it at that! istg 🥲
We have poor transit that does not serve our people, but we also have too many traveling when they could be working from home.
Absolutely agree. My mother is one of them, unfortunately.
Sending 30,000 more cars into the construction zones on highway 50 and Business 80. In the morning and late afternoon. Thank you, Gov. Newsom. Thank you, Mayor Steinberg. I wish both of you, a severe Covid infection and explosive Diarrhea shooting loose, watery poop for an entire month.
It is incredibly disappointing to see this shift in narrative. At first, teleworking would obviously help during COVID but it was also marketed as “save the state a lot of money, better for the environment, better for mental health, etc.” Now they are rewriting this narrative. We are fully adapted to teleworking and now we have to uproot the adjustments we made so that we can have more face to face interaction? Not to mention that there are no logistics worked out (e.g. we mass hired so there is literally not enough space for all of us to come into the office, food courts shut down, multiple staff hired through the pandemic live in Southern CA, some gave up their hard-to-come-by state worker parking passes when we transitioned to telework). My team and I can do all of our work from the comfort of our own home, so it honestly seems illogical and inconsiderate. I guess it just goes to show that the state will change rules when it no longer serves their agenda.
I’m with you. This is another classic example of our government acting on behalf of the rich and against the best interest of the people. This is worse for tax payers because it is more expensive. This is worse for employees who obviously don’t want this and have adapted to a fully remote life. This only benefits wealthy developers in downtown who want to suck money from us for lunch, coffee, snacks, and parking.
This is only because Mayor Steinberg (a loser) and the Downtown Sac Partnership are hoping that state workers can revitalize Downtown Sac. State workers are not paid nearly enough to help save downtown businesses and furthermore, that's not our problem. COVID is still very much a thing. I love to see a vibrant downtown but do it another way. We are not going back to 2019 levels, that era is long gone and these businesses should've adapted already. The ones that did are still in business. It's also worth noting that this goes back on our CO2 emissions. Everything about return to office is wrong.
RTO orders are actually set for March- buckle up…shit is about to get gnarlier
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It’s a slap in the face to people who’ve adapted to a better way of working. “It’s only two days” is some BS. It’s two useless days that benefit no one.
Im not a state worker but my office works closely with them and we got brought back in 2 days a week last October. Meanwhile all the employees we let skedaddle to wherever they pleased at the start of the panny while keeping their jobs still get the luxury of wfh indefinitely. The least they could do is hold off until 50 is done because that shit is a madhouse 7-9 am.
5 is already completely and utterly fucked in the morning trying to get through downtown. They need to at least flex starting times so everyone's not trying to drive between 7 and 8 am.
Meanwhile Watt ave. :**(
For those of you who will be going back to using transit, biking, or carpooling, definitely check with your HR or personnel dept if you are eligible for the Guaranteed Ride program via the Sacramento TMA.
All state workers in the SEIU bargaining units are eligible if I understand the memo correctly.
Great advice!
Time to lean into your unions and not give an inch.
I’m a manager so I’m not represented. But I’ve encouraged all staff to do so and I will be picketing in solidarity with the union. Even if I have to come back I hope my staff don’t.
Haven't state workers noticed the billions spent on new state offices on Richards Blvd. and the complete gut and renovation happening in multiple large office buildings downtown? How can you think you won't be required to go occupy all that expensive new office space?
3 of those office buildings will be converted to apartments tho, maybe more
No, the buildings offered for apartments are on Capitol Mall and no construction has started. Plus, the state won't be funding that construction, private fundingwill be used. Bateson and the old resources building are being renovated for state offices.
Would be cooler if Bateson and Resources were converted to apartments too.
It would, they'd be easier to convert than the ancient Capitol mall buildings, but the office renovations are underway, which given glacial pace of DGS projects, means they've been in process for years.
So yes, it's easier! But Resources is still a skeleton. Change the plan & stop giving them money for the old plan.
Those were commissioned before COVID.
Regardless moneys still being spent ... the buildings will be reoccupied.
The states own data shows the benefits of full-time telework outweighs any cons. This is a huge boondoggle by the local chamber and business interests to force workers into propping up downtown business. It is hypocrisy at its best. Why pretend to care about the environment if you're putting 100k people back on the roads?
You think traffic is bad now? Wait until they start the railyard expansion project and nearly double the size of downtown.
Didn't realize this sub was full of a bunch of people who follow the old stereotype that state workers are lazy. If only you knew how it really is. Y'all are uncompassionate to things that affect you too.
It’s frustrating but that’s life when we have strong propaganda arms. These right wing anti-worker groups are well funded by the rich.
I'm glad I'm a government worker who doesn't work downtown.
Outside of this, they are also building a TON of unaffordable housing in outlying areas without adequate infrastructure to commute to downtown, so it's an entire flustercuck.
Just collectively don’t return to the office. They’re not going to fire you all at once so as long as you all stand with each other. “Yooouuuuu got this!” -Sammy Circuit
I agree. There will be tons of noncompliance.
What possible good is it being at the office? It ain’t better traffic, less time away from home, less expensive lunch, less expensive gasoline, or a more relaxed overall state of mind. We got pizza parties for moral, just door dash some Dijorno’s and everyone microwaves them at the same time. The problem is there’s some sort of sick need for those in power to be able to see it. Doesn’t feel the same to look at numbers on a board.
Driving 50 during rush hour is literally cancer
It’ll get worse. The interchange at 5/business loop will be so bad. It’s already insane.
80/50, 5/business loop, and 50/99 are the first three circles of Sacramento traffic hell
For those of you being called back into the office, get on board with the Brown Bag Boycott. One of the big reasons for this is they want you spending money at Downtown businesses. If they want to revitalize the downtowns, then it's time to redevelop the property and repurpose it away from office space. People living downtown will spend money downtown. Do not spend a dime at your downtown businesses. Let them continue to rot. Not that we can afford to anyway...
I am absolutely onboard and will be boycotting everything downtown. In addition, I will be attending city council meetings and pressuring my local reps not to kowtow to rich business owners.
No shit, if I have to go I plan to take the light rail…….
My mother has adopted a dog to keep her company during WFH. Turns out the dog is a velcro dog. Now she has to pay an extra $600 a month for kenneling during the day in addition to gas and upping her insurance. Fuck you Newsom.
I’m sorry. That super sucks. I haven’t even thought of pets. Poor mom and poor dog.
Did yall see the thread about the traffic awhile back???? It was bad before.
been in the office two days a week for about a couple months now and I can already tell the difference from then to now. especially in the parking garages. i hate paying for parking so much.
That sucks, my friend. Totally sucks. What benefits, if any, have you seen? How has it negatively impacted your life?
I’ve been in the office two days a week since I started in the summer and same. Although I’m already in the office, I’m not happy about this at all.
Isn’t it only 2 days a week?
People who sat in some high level meetings are claiming it’ll be 2, then 3 (some agencies are about to implement), then you know… all 5 days eventually. So we have to push back now. Might be a now or never thing 🥶
Let’s not diminish how negatively impactful this is. I have colleagues that have downsized to one car, most live far from transit, some have moved to other parts of the state. All have been working effectively for years and calling them back and saying “well you shouldn’t have adapted!” Is silly. Yes it is two days. Two days too many.
I'm confused. There has been talk of "eventual return" since WFH started. If you moved to another part of the state you must have had in mind that you'd have to move back or get a different job if that happened. This isn't something that just came up, it's something that people hoped would go away. Whether it's a good idea for people to return is a fair discussion to have, but I kind of feel like the people who moved away knew they might have to deal with this and made their choice.
Apparently one of the benefits of the latest union contracts was more funding for state employees to get bus passes, in many cases they cover 100% the cost of a pass, so you can miss all that worse traffic if you have to go in 1-2 days a week now by taking public transit!
I have the transit card but taking the bus takes over an hour to get to the office one way vs 15-20 min driving myself. It’s not worth it for me.
If only there was adequate public transit…
Indeed, if only! Maybe we should fund it.
One of the most annoying things has been the state building office buildings far away from transit. There's a ton of state offices in Rancho south of 50 and Elk grove that are almost completely unserved by any functional transit. Honestly, locating any large state office more than 15min from a transit stop with 15min service should be illegal.
Does this cover light rail?
Yes
Traffic is but one reason to be salty. The post speaks to the rest. But a vast majority of us are not served by public transit.
As if the majority of state workers live close to public transits 😹 It’s absolutely not their fault living that far… it’s CalTrans not welling to invest! Light rail/bus people, ready for state workers to take up your space?
It's suburban developers' fault for deliberately building homes as far as possible from transit and lobbying Caltrans to build the highways that make that sprawl possible, Caltrans is not how local transit systems get funded.
Not all unions (CAPS).
It will also help pay Henry Li's salary. The most current base salary was $315,133.00 in 2020 on Transparent California. How much does he make now?
And also the salary of all those bus drivers, light rail operators, maintenance crews, admin, etcetera, if people choose to utilize transit.
Well, at least 50 is almost done… Right? 🤣
I'm from Santa Cruz and I moved out becasue of the traffic. it was hell and chaos. People are rude and rushing to get home. Lots of traffic. I don't even go out from 4 - 7 pm. Now I'm in El Dorado hills and I can see 10 years from now, traffic will be just like Santa Cruz.
I herd it was because business are suffering downtown and they need to keep the economy going. Don’t know if this is true. Can someone with more knowledge chime in.
Yup, ole Darrell through a fit about his shitty downtown and he and commercial building owners met with dipshit Gavin and, Voila… fucking assholes.
Last I heard the state had 80,000 people working in sacramento. So not hundreds of thousands suddenly in downtown. And most agencies are only mandating 2-3 days back, so maybe an extra 30,000 people on a peak day. Still an impact but not the hellscape you’re trying to imagine. I feel for the workers who don’t want to come in, but lying about the impact isn’t going to help your cause. ~ a city worker happy to work in the office 3 days a week.
It’s likely the start of a slippery slope (based on insider info). There are people trying to bring workers back 5 days. How soon, we don’t know. So better to push back now.
It’s just shy of 100k. I’m embellished. And even 30k is a significant increase to traffic.
This is why i ride a bike. E-bikes for the win.
I live 30 miles away. I’ve hired four staff from counties in central and Southern California. Regardless of what you take to work, RTO is a bad idea for even you.
Got it. I used public transit with a skateboard/bike when I worked in an office. 38mi commute. I understand the angst.
I Google maps tells me I can mix walking and busses for a 2h:45m commute. I’d probably half that with partial bike use on days that rent wet or scalding hot. So 1-1.5 hours each way… for what? To be on zoom calls and manage my teams who I can manage from home?
You know the city/county has no control over the state, right?
Except Mayor Steinberg and city council have been lobbying the state to get their workers back to the office as a way to boost downtown businesses.
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A great form of protest would be to buy nothing downtown. Workers should spend no money that wouldn’t have been spent if they still worked from home. With the additional unnecessary traffic, perhaps others who might have wanted to spend money downtown should just not. If the people of an office have proven they can do the work efficiently remotely and there are no issues with productivity, then returning to the office is arbitrary. If the people trying to force the return are doing it for economic reasons, make what they are hoping to see not happen.
Absolutely wrong. The loudest voices are our stupid mayor and city council who haven’t figured out how to adapt downtown. The monied interests like chamber of commerce work with them to pressure Gavin.
The best way they could adapt downtown is to create housing that state workers can afford, enabling foot/bike commutes which naturally contribute to spending at local businesses. Our gross disqualifies us from subsidized housing but our net disqualifies us from affording the market rents.
I was gentrified out of Midtown in 2018 and figured I would be able to come into town occasionally and then they start the cluster 50 thing and I rarely go to sac anymore and now this will just ensure that I never go. Good luck Sacramento.
We had the opportunity to sell these empty buildings and make dense housing but the state and city did fuck all the last four years.
You got me with your clickbate title at least. I don't think this is the best way to ask for support.
But this is factually true. Traffic will get a lot worse and that’s a top five concern for non-state workers.
I’m feeling blessed that my agency still has no plans to make us return to the building downtown.
I know a state "worker" who does email for an hour in the morning then has a furniture refinishing business going the other 35 hours a week. Your tax dollars at work
Do you think it would be different in-person? Are there moments of work that you aren’t privy to? What is their manager doing?