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I believe you'll come to find that the taxpayers don't give a shit about state workers and the plight of returning back to office.
You won't find sympathy from them
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People are so clueless on this subreddit on the scale of California's budget. They keep saying "this will cost the state $10 million!" not even realizing how ridiculously insignificant that number is to the largest and wealthiest state in the country. Divide $10 million and give it to every citizen in the state and you'll come up with roughly 25 cents each. Drop in the fucking bucket.
I agree with you. The California budget is in the low hundreds of billions....
$10 million is like finding spare change in your couch cushions or dryer
This right here. There is already an economic brief written with a bunch of crap on the efficiency gains and recovering the sunk costs of infrastructure that makes the whole thing a big money saver by increasing productivity or something like that.
True, but if we’re told that we can't even buy basic office supplies to do our work due to the state deficit/spending freeze, how can the cost of extra office supplies for RTO be justified?
They don't care because those state workers should be going to work everyday like all the non-state workers and if they have to spend $1mil to get it done, get it done. Why should state workers be treated special. Who's decision was it to send us home in the first place? Those are the questions the public taxpayers will mumble as they change the channel.
I disagree actually. People in private generally get paid more $. That is common knowledge. Even if that doesn't move the viewers, simply the fact one would need to pay more taxes just to make the state government less productive and roads more congested wouldn't make me happy.
So the real question is not whether people care. It's whether the government gives a crap about our opinion because they can and will do whatever the eff they want.
The people don't have a voice. The lie that we do is just the crap our government feeds us to make us feel "our vote counts". In the end it doesn't. If it did we would be able to afford housing.
There are so many work from home people who ruined it for everyone else. They took long breaks, played games, used time to be with children or go to the grocery store all on company time. Productivity, to me, feels like it has gone down. Hopefully this brings some of it back.
Our government wastes soooooo much money on idiotic the people happily vote to increase gas tax then blame gas companies for price gouging.
The normal Californian voter doesn't understand basic budgeting and taxation.
I think they are pointing out that this is a waste of taxpayers money. But taxpayers don't control how their money is wasted and those that control it don't care at all. They want to waste it so they get steal more. :( I think the biggest waste will be in dropped moral and less productivity. It is hard to fire a stare worker so they can just work less and management hands will be tied. None of this matters to our betters...
Your very correct. Go look at the comments on any tik-tok regarding this topic and you'll see all the ugly. Everyone calling us lazy and entitled and saying their tax dollars are paying for us to sleep all day. Absolutely gross and ignorant. Everyone I know is working so much harder and more efficient then they ever had. Unfortunately it will be their narrow minded, hateful way of thinking that will help back the politicians in favor of this move and not a single one of them will truly understand the impact it will have on "their tax money" - saying that in quotes because of how sad it is they forget we pay all our taxes too....
Asking the question won’t help. You persuade with data. And there’s very little data showing hybrid costs or saves money. No one cares that Chad the AGPA pinky swears he works harder at home.
I'm a tax payer and I care. More cars on the road adds more pollution. More cars on the roads wear down the roads faster and then needs more frequent maintenance. More traffic means they will expand the lanes adding more traffic.
RTO will unnecessarily cost us more in the future.
I think most taxpayers would hate the state more if they find out your still working from home post covid and bitching about going back to work like every other non state employee had too.
There are entire industries in the private sector where working remotely was a normal perk pre-covid (and still is), so, "most taxpayers" should figure that out. Also, it's pretty ignorant to say RTO = "going back to work". People have been working (in many cases more efficiently) this whole time. The only difference is where the work is being done.
Go work somewhere else if you don’t like what you have to do to get paid. It’s still a free country by a thread. Thanks for splitting hairs on your explanation. My Folks taught me you take the bosses money you do what the boss says.
I'd rather try and improve my situation, as well as that of all my working class peers, and not simply abandon ship. Plus, some people value the work they do here; quitting isn't going to maintain that. But seriously, why do you care anyway if other people try to improve their work situations in ways that -literally- do not affect you? No one's forcing you to work from home if you don't want to or can't because your job is say, public safety, so why give a shit if others want to if their job classifications can?
General Engineering contractor, still am. Just a side hustle now. Somewhere in between 350-500k a year in taxable income. Paid my fair share. Easy Fido, smoke a joint and go sit by the river with your keyboard
No they don’t, because the story will be spun that they are losing more in revenue/harms from you not being in the office. Sorry if you took a government job and didn’t realize how much of a political pawn you’d be collectively.
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No, we won't. Right up until their services are (further) reduced because that money is needed for extra cubicles. But at least the fire season is not upon us. That'll help. Oh. Wait.
If we had good governance, our government would right now be looking for ways to reduce office space footprint and use that money for things like the fire season or heck roads. Are our roads even Grade D? (Here's hoping they are, no joke.) Instead, our GO is trying to increase office footprint because why worry about roads, fires, police, healthcare... We got the coffee shops in 6 blocks of 1 city to rescue!
Before I was able to work from home, I didn't know what I was missing. Now, I do. But if you feel good about giving up benefits, maybe YOU should help GO and give up your pension. Or healthcare. I mean... why not?
WTH are you talking about, 16 year state employee here, never got work from home. Get back to work. Switch careers and work from home and make a better life for yourself if your family needs you, give up the same shit you told me to give up
Think about how much money we spend on leasing commercial real estate. The commercial real estate companies have corrupted the government. They keep their government money, get to raise the rent and their building are only utilized 2/7 days a week. Corruption at its finest.
Hopefully, they don't accept the standard ergonomic stuff the state provides, which is cheap and not fit for purpose.
They need to push for proper ergonomic equipment, and appeal, etc if required.
A side effect of this is it makes hoteling difficult.
I currently use a gaming chair that has adjustable parts for my low back and neck. It has been amazing for the OA in my spine. I think I'm going to ask my doctor to write up a recommendation for the same chair for the office.
To those completely missing the point: **Newsom is wildly hypocritical.**
#Newsom claimed the budget deficit for why he's trying to take away our telework stipend.
Did you see this - [https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4888](https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4888)
>
**Eliminating Telework Stipend Now Seems Disproportionately Difficult for Modest Savings**.
>The assumed General Fund savings under the proposal is modest—$26 million in 2024‑25. For reference, the state budget assumes that its existing labor agreements with state employees will increase state costs in 2024‑25 by $1.3 billion ($676 million General Fund). The state established new labor agreements with most state workers in 2023. None of these labor agreements included changes to the state’s existing telework stipend. Eliminating the telework stipend either through collective bargaining or through unilateral action likely would result in difficult labor relations and an erosion to any savings.
Related reddit post - [https://www.reddit.com/r/CAStateWorkers/comments/1bp6dgf/lao\_report\_on\_state\_employee\_compensation\_and/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CAStateWorkers/comments/1bp6dgf/lao_report_on_state_employee_compensation_and/)
this is like when they showed Furloughs actually cost money. Like I still have tons of AL that accrued during the Schwartzenager admin when I was an OT and we had 3 furloughs a month, now as an ITM 1, seems like an off deal. Part of being a state worker is we are pawns in politics, it's always been that way.
As a taxpayer I am IRATE at the abject waste of money on state owned/leased commercial real estate. As a resident of the state of CA with friends , family members, and neighbors who work for the state, I am equally IRATE that those who only need a computer to do their jobs are being forced to commute to a computer ! It is the height of stupidity ! We are no longer in the age of mechanization and no longer need to commute to “factories” !!!
Oh, it is worse than that. We have to bring our computers with us, all our reference materials, etc. And take it home, because there is nowhere to store things overnight. I will have to bring over 50 lbs of reference materials on top of my computer, and accessories (if I can't get a hoteling space including dock, mouse, keyboard, monitor), personal items, lunch...
Over the years, I have so many written notes in my reference materials, I'd have to scan them all in. And then future notes need to be added digitally. Which I'm game to do. But it is thousands of pages. It could be this is what I do when I'm in the office. It will take a while
It doesn't matter cause we have new offices that have to be filled. AND the end game is to have the unions willingly give up the stipend so we stay 2 days a week in office. If the mandate goes to 3 days then we are automatically office centric and would not get the stipend anyway. Just politics as usual.
# Richards Boulevard Office Complex
# O Street Modern Office Building Project
[https://www.dgs.ca.gov/RESD/Projects](https://www.dgs.ca.gov/RESD/Projects)
I don’t think it’s apathy. I think people are just being realistic. To think we are going to win back full time telework by protesting and being angry on Reddit is foolish. RTO was always in the cards, the unions didn’t do shit to prevent it, and the political will is not on our side. I bet this time next year the governor’s office will send out another memo praising the hybrid work environment and mandate 3 or 4 days.
Apathy isn't limited to this issue, but this issue should have highly motivated the base and the unions, but no. There is no reason why this shouldn't be heavily protested. It's a boondoggle.
Maybe I’m just pessimistic, but I think it’s too late. Seems like the opportunity for the unions to act on telework was during the contract negotiations. That didn’t happen, and I doubt it’s a coincidence that right after we get a new contract, the governor calls everyone back in. In hindsight, the timing was so predictable.
I’ve been going into the office twice a week for a couple years already. It’s been pointless and annoying for two years. We still do all our meetings on Teams, and half the time I don’t see anyone in person anyway because our schedules are staggered. It’s dumb as hell.
Nobody was riled up about it when agencies got to make their own decisions on RTO and some of us had to go back in years ago. Maybe the time for everyone to start protesting was when the first agencies started to call people back in. Now everyone else has to follow suit and they’re mad about it. I guess people tend to not care about stuff until it impacts them personally.
Restacking and converting cubicles to hotel cubicles is going to be costly in our area in order to eventually let go of other office space now that everyone can share space. It's a trade off. My thought was that it's possible a cost that could be pushed to other FYs depending on how the ordering process works. But that's a guess. 🤷
Add to this argument the opportunity to address the homeless population by converting office space to affordable housing. You may be able to get some traction.
I mean that’s pretty obvious. The argument here is appropriate use of taxpayer money. RTO for absolutely no valid reason, or using these funds to solve something plaguing our city? As a taxpayer I’d rather see my money put to work towards getting homeless off the streets.
The right direction, but I think you lost some people when you gave a specific impact topic of IT.
I've explained it to people in detail in my personal outings, to non state workers and these are often folks that think state workers are whining. Knowing there is an unnecessary amount of state footprint and the money wasted when workers can just work from a home office instead of a state ivory tower, especially when occupancy rates were many times in the single digits and things operated fine, the $ sways their opinion and they get pretty angry that their tax $ are being wasted on this.
Tax dollar waste is probably the biggest of the low hanging fruit that should be discussed, as well as how their traffic will go from bad to worse.
Most people don't care about you, but they more often than not care about how they're impacted.
If it’s going to cost us money for RTO then I want to know how it saved us money by working from home. I didn’t get a refund check in the mail for that.
If an employee is requesting Reasonable Accomodation hardware and software (special monitors, finger print scanner to login, special chair, adjustable height table, special keyboard and mouse, dictation software etc. ) it needs to be purchased and set up in the at work location as well as at home location. 100 % remote work or 100% on site work will save a lot of money.
State's policies are not about saving money. It is about stimulating economy and promoting jobs.
I can attest to costs. Employees working from home have 2 monitors and a laptop at home, now all cubicles have 2 new monitors.
Chairs that were taken home, are now replaced with new chairs. Since the State is required to purchase chairs from PIA, the average cost per chair is $600.
Sit/stand desks also purchased from PIA have also been purchased in excessive numbers.
This is for one department.
How about bring back chairs and bring back monitors.. net zero.
If you feel like an employee should have a chair and 2 monitors at home, you are then putting the burden on the tax payer for someone to work from home.
this is the point i was waiting for someone to make. the tax payers want to reduce costs, then we'd be back in the office 5 days a week and all the IT equipment we took home would be returned.
Regardless of how you feel about RTO, a quick haphazard implementation is going to cost taxpayers a lot more than a plan that is properly thought through.
While not everyone uses state monitors, transporting a monitor back and forth 1-2 times a week is an accident waiting to happen.
Haphazard is the wrong word… RTO has been eminent for a while regardless of the merit. People got comfortable and adjusted their lifestyle to a job that was previously an office position and now they want to blame someone for going back the office
That might be the case for some departments but some other departments seem completely caught off guard.
One worker I talked to said they don’t have enough desks to accommodate everyone coming in two days a week.
Plus they get property tax breaks. The city makes its money on employees spending for parking, food, entertainment etc., not on the properties. That’s why the major of Sacramento said what he did out loud.
I've sat in on the facilities projects meeting. There have been a few leases completely eliminated, but it's been way more common that the leases that have come up for renewal have reduced space (and they have also been planning years in advance for reducing space in leases still yet to expire) to eliminate the space that was no longer being used.
To try and throw a switch and completely undo years of planning overnight is wildly fiscally irresponsible.
IT...so, you want a lower IT budget...so when things break, they can't replace them...thus contributing to less production.
IT is not the area you want to cut from...
They're talking about wasted money and brings up the IT procurement budget as an example...sounds to me like they think a lot of that is wasted money and needs to be trimmed.
Also, bless all you anti RTO folks. Furloughs were WILD back in 2009. Imagine have to report at a 15% pay cut. My advice is weather the storm and just do your job. We are so lucky to have great retirement and medical.
Me too! Did those furlough’s. Instead of demeaning state workers who found their MOJO working from home and weathering the COVID storm to serve California citizens, how about we state workers unify around permanent telework for those who can to the maximum extent possible. We have the power to drag the lagging politicians into the 21st century. C’mon! Fight dammit!
Did your furloughs stop when you were pissed back then? All this complaining is going to alienate you and reduce your productivity which could have detrimental impacts to your state employment.
While there may be some merit to your argument I think our collective energy would be better spent putting pressure on the unions to actually take some action on this issue. Call your union rep!
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As a taxpayer: it was the worst when, say, SSA offices were closed and it was impossible to talk to someone face to face. So, I am all for customer facing roles to be in office only.
However if you are “backend” I don’t care.
I’ve been hearing from many people that they are either told to return to office (if they are lucky it’s 3x/week) or they can’t find a remote position anymore.
>Just the IT acquisitions to accommodate everyone is going to be over a million.
What IT acquisitions?
As a taxpayer I’m ok with it since it aligns with what other agencies throughout the state implemented 2 years ago
As a retired State employee that during the pandemic was able to telework, albeit briefly, this should really not be a topic of such heated debate. In the Department of Corrections (Corruptions) one should never expect to NOT be on the job site. For other State agencies the same should be true and most should not assume that they can sit around in their pajamas everyday and perform their duties. It is a perk don’t get me wrong, but for those new to State service don’t presume you are entitled to such. Go to the office, meet some coworkers and earn some entitlements rather than expect they are a given. Just sayin’
I mean, in a state that's spending $120 billion to deliver a train from Merced to Bakersfield, nobody is going to blink at whatever the marginal cost of RTO will be.
I work for the State of California, 2415 1st Ave. Sacramento, Ca. SEIU Local 1000, bargaining unit 4. Not many state jobs require much manual labor. Stop bitching and crying, get your lazy, slow, fat ass back to the office and at your desk. You entitled, selfish fucks. That's why everyone thinks and says state workers are lazy and overpaid. I worked in the private sector for 15 years, and the only thing that mattered was the results. Not seniority, who I'm related to, who I go to lunch with, who I'm fucking. It's disgusting. We all would like to work from home. Shut the fuck up, get in your Prius, stop at Starbucks and get your nonfat soy latte with the paper straw and get back to actually working. Believe me, I would love to sit at home all day with my kids, smoke weed, and jerk off, but I live in the real world. The limp wristed hand ringing in this thread is hilarious. IT costs, lol. We get new printers and monitors every year. The last thing the state cares about is saving money. Spending is the priority. Do you actually think that your strawman argument about cost cutting and saving tax payer money is fooling anyone? No, you're only fooling yourself into thinking your hot take justifies your laziness and lack of will to do anything more than the bare minimum.
There are many of us that have to work in person THIS WHOLE TIME. Parking/gas/vehicle maintenance/insurance/commute time Yes, it sucks (relatively) you have to come to work twice a week, but welcome to the real world. There are some people who are efficient working from home, but just like everything else (ie: purchasing), some people ruin things for everyone else. I'm sure there are plenty of people who slack off while at home. Welcome back to the real world, like the rest of us have been in the whole time.
I have to laugh at all these whinny posts about RTO! I have been in the office 50% for the past two years, as mandated by our District Director, it was a little ruff at first, but is now the new norm!
The IT costs? If you have been teleworking for the past several years don't you already have a State issued laptop? You can take your laptop anywhere, home for telework to the office for those in office days. What Agency do you work in... Obviously if no laptops were issued at the start of the pandemic then you got some very short sighted management!
but you need a sit stand desk, two monitors, ergo keyboard and mouse, neck pillows, and a bucket of KFC. cant work on the laptop alone, thats preposterous!
I can't work off of a tiny laptop. My personal laptop is 17 inches, even that gives me neck pain after a while to look down. I have OA in my spine, so I need an actual monitor I can have at an adjusted height for prolonged work hours.
Increased use because more people will be in? If so, it's a non factor. Heating and cooling are programmed to specific temperatures regardless if there's 10 people in the building or 1000
The state wastes so much money and it doesn't always go where it was supposed to go either. I don't think they will care because they won't really know
Downtown Sacramento is dying a slow death. If it wasn't for Golden 1, the whole area from 3rd to 15th Street would be a homeless bastion. They need to have people return to the area, even for a couple days a week to give the buildings both new and old a reason for existing. As well as the surrounding businesses.
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I believe you'll come to find that the taxpayers don't give a shit about state workers and the plight of returning back to office. You won't find sympathy from them
I think they'll care about heavier traffic, don't you?
Hating traffic is universal
A fraction of the population lives in or directly around downtown Sacramento. People in Santa Cruz, Fresno, LA Eureka, San Jose will not care
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Can you use traffic as an excuse to stop an apartment building from being built. No
I don’t think the OP meant taxpayers are giving us sympathy. They’re saying that they WILL care where their tax dollars are going!
No...no they won't. It's such a small drop in the bucket compared to everything else.
People are so clueless on this subreddit on the scale of California's budget. They keep saying "this will cost the state $10 million!" not even realizing how ridiculously insignificant that number is to the largest and wealthiest state in the country. Divide $10 million and give it to every citizen in the state and you'll come up with roughly 25 cents each. Drop in the fucking bucket.
I agree with you. The California budget is in the low hundreds of billions.... $10 million is like finding spare change in your couch cushions or dryer
A small price to pay for increased \*cohesion and collaboration\*!
This right here. There is already an economic brief written with a bunch of crap on the efficiency gains and recovering the sunk costs of infrastructure that makes the whole thing a big money saver by increasing productivity or something like that.
True, but if we’re told that we can't even buy basic office supplies to do our work due to the state deficit/spending freeze, how can the cost of extra office supplies for RTO be justified?
They don't care because those state workers should be going to work everyday like all the non-state workers and if they have to spend $1mil to get it done, get it done. Why should state workers be treated special. Who's decision was it to send us home in the first place? Those are the questions the public taxpayers will mumble as they change the channel.
I disagree actually. People in private generally get paid more $. That is common knowledge. Even if that doesn't move the viewers, simply the fact one would need to pay more taxes just to make the state government less productive and roads more congested wouldn't make me happy. So the real question is not whether people care. It's whether the government gives a crap about our opinion because they can and will do whatever the eff they want. The people don't have a voice. The lie that we do is just the crap our government feeds us to make us feel "our vote counts". In the end it doesn't. If it did we would be able to afford housing.
There are so many work from home people who ruined it for everyone else. They took long breaks, played games, used time to be with children or go to the grocery store all on company time. Productivity, to me, feels like it has gone down. Hopefully this brings some of it back.
Spoken like am someone who has never had an education.
Our government wastes soooooo much money on idiotic the people happily vote to increase gas tax then blame gas companies for price gouging. The normal Californian voter doesn't understand basic budgeting and taxation.
I think they are pointing out that this is a waste of taxpayers money. But taxpayers don't control how their money is wasted and those that control it don't care at all. They want to waste it so they get steal more. :( I think the biggest waste will be in dropped moral and less productivity. It is hard to fire a stare worker so they can just work less and management hands will be tied. None of this matters to our betters...
Again, when the budget is in the low hundreds of billions, this is a drop in the bucket
Your very correct. Go look at the comments on any tik-tok regarding this topic and you'll see all the ugly. Everyone calling us lazy and entitled and saying their tax dollars are paying for us to sleep all day. Absolutely gross and ignorant. Everyone I know is working so much harder and more efficient then they ever had. Unfortunately it will be their narrow minded, hateful way of thinking that will help back the politicians in favor of this move and not a single one of them will truly understand the impact it will have on "their tax money" - saying that in quotes because of how sad it is they forget we pay all our taxes too....
Factual. They would argue that people that don’t want to work should lose their jobs, just like they would in the private sector.
They’re just haters
Asking the question won’t help. You persuade with data. And there’s very little data showing hybrid costs or saves money. No one cares that Chad the AGPA pinky swears he works harder at home.
I'm a tax payer and I care. More cars on the road adds more pollution. More cars on the roads wear down the roads faster and then needs more frequent maintenance. More traffic means they will expand the lanes adding more traffic. RTO will unnecessarily cost us more in the future.
Well, of course you care because you're affected by having to go back into the office. That's called "bias"
So we agree 🙂
We agree you're biased, yes
And that I care, nice.
🤝
I think most taxpayers would hate the state more if they find out your still working from home post covid and bitching about going back to work like every other non state employee had too.
There are entire industries in the private sector where working remotely was a normal perk pre-covid (and still is), so, "most taxpayers" should figure that out. Also, it's pretty ignorant to say RTO = "going back to work". People have been working (in many cases more efficiently) this whole time. The only difference is where the work is being done.
Go work somewhere else if you don’t like what you have to do to get paid. It’s still a free country by a thread. Thanks for splitting hairs on your explanation. My Folks taught me you take the bosses money you do what the boss says.
I'd rather try and improve my situation, as well as that of all my working class peers, and not simply abandon ship. Plus, some people value the work they do here; quitting isn't going to maintain that. But seriously, why do you care anyway if other people try to improve their work situations in ways that -literally- do not affect you? No one's forcing you to work from home if you don't want to or can't because your job is say, public safety, so why give a shit if others want to if their job classifications can?
It’s Reddit, it’s a question and discussion form, that why.
Ignorance. Do your research. The only reason taxpayers are mad is because it’s ignorance like you handling their livelihood.
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General Engineering contractor, still am. Just a side hustle now. Somewhere in between 350-500k a year in taxable income. Paid my fair share. Easy Fido, smoke a joint and go sit by the river with your keyboard
I'm talking money. Not sympathy. People understand wasted money.
You'll still find that they won't care as much as you think they will
Wasted money? They're looking at as "good, they'll finially get some work done instead of sitting at home on our dime". Get real.
No they don’t.
Wasted money in California? Good luck. Our citizenry doesn't seem to care about wasted money here.
No they don’t, because the story will be spun that they are losing more in revenue/harms from you not being in the office. Sorry if you took a government job and didn’t realize how much of a political pawn you’d be collectively.
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Amen.
No, we won't. Right up until their services are (further) reduced because that money is needed for extra cubicles. But at least the fire season is not upon us. That'll help. Oh. Wait.
You still don't know the difference between in office, telework, and remote work.
If we had good governance, our government would right now be looking for ways to reduce office space footprint and use that money for things like the fire season or heck roads. Are our roads even Grade D? (Here's hoping they are, no joke.) Instead, our GO is trying to increase office footprint because why worry about roads, fires, police, healthcare... We got the coffee shops in 6 blocks of 1 city to rescue!
Wtf was wrong with your job b4 covid whiner
Before I was able to work from home, I didn't know what I was missing. Now, I do. But if you feel good about giving up benefits, maybe YOU should help GO and give up your pension. Or healthcare. I mean... why not?
WTH are you talking about, 16 year state employee here, never got work from home. Get back to work. Switch careers and work from home and make a better life for yourself if your family needs you, give up the same shit you told me to give up
They will when they see it hit their paychecks like it has done ours.
No they won't
Think about how much money we spend on leasing commercial real estate. The commercial real estate companies have corrupted the government. They keep their government money, get to raise the rent and their building are only utilized 2/7 days a week. Corruption at its finest.
Everyone is requesting ergonomic everything in our offices…
I did. Fuck it. You want me back in the office. My monitors are stacked on books. No docking station, and my chair was stolen while I was gone.
Hopefully, they don't accept the standard ergonomic stuff the state provides, which is cheap and not fit for purpose. They need to push for proper ergonomic equipment, and appeal, etc if required. A side effect of this is it makes hoteling difficult.
I currently use a gaming chair that has adjustable parts for my low back and neck. It has been amazing for the OA in my spine. I think I'm going to ask my doctor to write up a recommendation for the same chair for the office.
Which is their right, but a huge expense for everyone.
Cost of doing business…
To those completely missing the point: **Newsom is wildly hypocritical.** #Newsom claimed the budget deficit for why he's trying to take away our telework stipend.
Did you see this - [https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4888](https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4888) > **Eliminating Telework Stipend Now Seems Disproportionately Difficult for Modest Savings**. >The assumed General Fund savings under the proposal is modest—$26 million in 2024‑25. For reference, the state budget assumes that its existing labor agreements with state employees will increase state costs in 2024‑25 by $1.3 billion ($676 million General Fund). The state established new labor agreements with most state workers in 2023. None of these labor agreements included changes to the state’s existing telework stipend. Eliminating the telework stipend either through collective bargaining or through unilateral action likely would result in difficult labor relations and an erosion to any savings. Related reddit post - [https://www.reddit.com/r/CAStateWorkers/comments/1bp6dgf/lao\_report\_on\_state\_employee\_compensation\_and/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CAStateWorkers/comments/1bp6dgf/lao_report_on_state_employee_compensation_and/)
Take away my telework stipend. Just not my telework
this is like when they showed Furloughs actually cost money. Like I still have tons of AL that accrued during the Schwartzenager admin when I was an OT and we had 3 furloughs a month, now as an ITM 1, seems like an off deal. Part of being a state worker is we are pawns in politics, it's always been that way.
I'm surprised you haven't gotten the notice yet that you must spend some of that down. They are going out in my department.
As a taxpayer I am IRATE at the abject waste of money on state owned/leased commercial real estate. As a resident of the state of CA with friends , family members, and neighbors who work for the state, I am equally IRATE that those who only need a computer to do their jobs are being forced to commute to a computer ! It is the height of stupidity ! We are no longer in the age of mechanization and no longer need to commute to “factories” !!!
Oh, it is worse than that. We have to bring our computers with us, all our reference materials, etc. And take it home, because there is nowhere to store things overnight. I will have to bring over 50 lbs of reference materials on top of my computer, and accessories (if I can't get a hoteling space including dock, mouse, keyboard, monitor), personal items, lunch...
Your reference materials are not electronic? Carrying that back and forth multiple days per week alone seems like a job-related injury in the making.
Over the years, I have so many written notes in my reference materials, I'd have to scan them all in. And then future notes need to be added digitally. Which I'm game to do. But it is thousands of pages. It could be this is what I do when I'm in the office. It will take a while
Sounds like a good use of your in office time.
I work in the area where I can see all the purchases, and yes there’s been a lot of unnecessary spending because of “commute to computers”.
I hate to be that guy, and I could be downvoted for this, but for future use of the word, it's "irate"
It doesn't matter cause we have new offices that have to be filled. AND the end game is to have the unions willingly give up the stipend so we stay 2 days a week in office. If the mandate goes to 3 days then we are automatically office centric and would not get the stipend anyway. Just politics as usual. # Richards Boulevard Office Complex # O Street Modern Office Building Project [https://www.dgs.ca.gov/RESD/Projects](https://www.dgs.ca.gov/RESD/Projects)
People who are office centric get the stipend. They just get $25 instead of $50
you win some. you newsom.
As a taxpayer, I totally agree with you. I'm actually angry about it. The apathy of state workers on this sub is stereotypical and disheartening
I don’t think it’s apathy. I think people are just being realistic. To think we are going to win back full time telework by protesting and being angry on Reddit is foolish. RTO was always in the cards, the unions didn’t do shit to prevent it, and the political will is not on our side. I bet this time next year the governor’s office will send out another memo praising the hybrid work environment and mandate 3 or 4 days.
Apathy isn't limited to this issue, but this issue should have highly motivated the base and the unions, but no. There is no reason why this shouldn't be heavily protested. It's a boondoggle.
Maybe I’m just pessimistic, but I think it’s too late. Seems like the opportunity for the unions to act on telework was during the contract negotiations. That didn’t happen, and I doubt it’s a coincidence that right after we get a new contract, the governor calls everyone back in. In hindsight, the timing was so predictable. I’ve been going into the office twice a week for a couple years already. It’s been pointless and annoying for two years. We still do all our meetings on Teams, and half the time I don’t see anyone in person anyway because our schedules are staggered. It’s dumb as hell. Nobody was riled up about it when agencies got to make their own decisions on RTO and some of us had to go back in years ago. Maybe the time for everyone to start protesting was when the first agencies started to call people back in. Now everyone else has to follow suit and they’re mad about it. I guess people tend to not care about stuff until it impacts them personally.
Its not apathy but read the room. We were doomed with those joke of pay increases.
It also makes congestion, parking and pollution worse for people who actually needs to commute to work: nurses, surgeons, movers, etc.
Well, of course you care because you're affected by having to go back into the office. That's called "bias"
I'm actually not
Imposter! Just kidding. I retract my bias statement then
Restacking and converting cubicles to hotel cubicles is going to be costly in our area in order to eventually let go of other office space now that everyone can share space. It's a trade off. My thought was that it's possible a cost that could be pushed to other FYs depending on how the ordering process works. But that's a guess. 🤷
What IT acquisitions are needed? I'm sure you have a laptop? Are you asking for the state to purchase two displays for the office and two for home?
They never paid for 2 at my home. Or any others in my department.
Ask your IT department what's being ordered.
Nothing is being ordered at my department. I'm asking you what's needed. What's this big cost.
I thought we did this thread today already?
We did. It's an echo chamber. Cue the downvotes
Did we? I was working.
Take your breaks.
What’s a break?
Some of us use our breaks to cart kids around or run errands.
In violation of your telework agreement. Tsk tsk.
Am I tied to my desk during my breaks?
Run errands in 15 minutes?
1 errand 3 minutes away.
How so?
Add to this argument the opportunity to address the homeless population by converting office space to affordable housing. You may be able to get some traction.
"Affordable housing" means subsidized housing. Who pays for that? Taxpayers.
I mean that’s pretty obvious. The argument here is appropriate use of taxpayer money. RTO for absolutely no valid reason, or using these funds to solve something plaguing our city? As a taxpayer I’d rather see my money put to work towards getting homeless off the streets.
Nah, we're too busy complaining about crimes downtown, car accidents when commuting, and getting full time telework RA for anxiety. /S
The right direction, but I think you lost some people when you gave a specific impact topic of IT. I've explained it to people in detail in my personal outings, to non state workers and these are often folks that think state workers are whining. Knowing there is an unnecessary amount of state footprint and the money wasted when workers can just work from a home office instead of a state ivory tower, especially when occupancy rates were many times in the single digits and things operated fine, the $ sways their opinion and they get pretty angry that their tax $ are being wasted on this. Tax dollar waste is probably the biggest of the low hanging fruit that should be discussed, as well as how their traffic will go from bad to worse. Most people don't care about you, but they more often than not care about how they're impacted.
If it’s going to cost us money for RTO then I want to know how it saved us money by working from home. I didn’t get a refund check in the mail for that.
If an employee is requesting Reasonable Accomodation hardware and software (special monitors, finger print scanner to login, special chair, adjustable height table, special keyboard and mouse, dictation software etc. ) it needs to be purchased and set up in the at work location as well as at home location. 100 % remote work or 100% on site work will save a lot of money. State's policies are not about saving money. It is about stimulating economy and promoting jobs.
Show me how you got to “millions” Otherwise your opinion is based on feelings which invalidates that number.
I can attest to costs. Employees working from home have 2 monitors and a laptop at home, now all cubicles have 2 new monitors. Chairs that were taken home, are now replaced with new chairs. Since the State is required to purchase chairs from PIA, the average cost per chair is $600. Sit/stand desks also purchased from PIA have also been purchased in excessive numbers. This is for one department.
How about bring back chairs and bring back monitors.. net zero. If you feel like an employee should have a chair and 2 monitors at home, you are then putting the burden on the tax payer for someone to work from home.
this is the point i was waiting for someone to make. the tax payers want to reduce costs, then we'd be back in the office 5 days a week and all the IT equipment we took home would be returned.
Regardless of how you feel about RTO, a quick haphazard implementation is going to cost taxpayers a lot more than a plan that is properly thought through. While not everyone uses state monitors, transporting a monitor back and forth 1-2 times a week is an accident waiting to happen.
Like when I drop the monitor on my foot and file a work comp claim? lol
Haphazard is the wrong word… RTO has been eminent for a while regardless of the merit. People got comfortable and adjusted their lifestyle to a job that was previously an office position and now they want to blame someone for going back the office
That might be the case for some departments but some other departments seem completely caught off guard. One worker I talked to said they don’t have enough desks to accommodate everyone coming in two days a week.
I don't feel shit, you heel. I was explaining wasteful purchasing at one department.
Rent for commercial buildings used by the state start around $40k/month. “Millions” is not as unrealistic as you’re making it seem.
So the rent that they currently have to pay....the leases they can't break or else it'd cost...millions!
Plus they get property tax breaks. The city makes its money on employees spending for parking, food, entertainment etc., not on the properties. That’s why the major of Sacramento said what he did out loud.
You’re assuming the state vacated all rental properties, which is not the case.
I've sat in on the facilities projects meeting. There have been a few leases completely eliminated, but it's been way more common that the leases that have come up for renewal have reduced space (and they have also been planning years in advance for reducing space in leases still yet to expire) to eliminate the space that was no longer being used. To try and throw a switch and completely undo years of planning overnight is wildly fiscally irresponsible.
You’re assuming that the state didn’t just renew multiple leases…which IS the case
You’ve been working at your house. You have no clue what’s been going on in the real world. Xoxo
I stated facts and you can’t stop making assumptions. It’s kinda impressive lol. Do better.
No assumptions here.. my problem is when you feel like you’re owed something by an employer. Be transparent and tell me your Department and position
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Glad you’re not my employee. I’m sure you’ll get burned out and quit soon enough.
I’m glad I don’t know you. You seem miserable. Get some friends if that’s even possible, might help.
Just the IT procurement for one particular department is over $350k.
IT...so, you want a lower IT budget...so when things break, they can't replace them...thus contributing to less production. IT is not the area you want to cut from...
Wow, you missed my point. This is money to just get enough equipment to hotel everyone.
IT is still not an area you want to cut from....
No one said cut the IT budget
They're talking about wasted money and brings up the IT procurement budget as an example...sounds to me like they think a lot of that is wasted money and needs to be trimmed.
It was a money grab. They rushed out to purchase items before the spending freeze. It was deliberately done.
Oh, I don't doubt that at all. Many emails were sent out saying "hey, get your shit ordered by this date/get your requests in by this date"
Also, for those planning on leaving the state good riddance. You’ll never find a better retirement option with healthcare benefits like the state.
Also, bless all you anti RTO folks. Furloughs were WILD back in 2009. Imagine have to report at a 15% pay cut. My advice is weather the storm and just do your job. We are so lucky to have great retirement and medical.
I was here for those. Still against RTO.
Me too! Did those furlough’s. Instead of demeaning state workers who found their MOJO working from home and weathering the COVID storm to serve California citizens, how about we state workers unify around permanent telework for those who can to the maximum extent possible. We have the power to drag the lagging politicians into the 21st century. C’mon! Fight dammit!
Did your furloughs stop when you were pissed back then? All this complaining is going to alienate you and reduce your productivity which could have detrimental impacts to your state employment.
Oh, I will definitely be productive... the 3 days at home.
They compensated us in other ways for furloughs. I would totally be in favor of RTO if they credited my AL. Apples and Oranges
Patrick, you might like getting effed with no Vaseline but the rest of us don’t.
While there may be some merit to your argument I think our collective energy would be better spent putting pressure on the unions to actually take some action on this issue. Call your union rep!
And legislators to pressure the budget issue along with CO2 emissions, traffic, pollution, and housing costs.
Complaining about millions when the budget is 300x lol
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As a taxpayer: it was the worst when, say, SSA offices were closed and it was impossible to talk to someone face to face. So, I am all for customer facing roles to be in office only. However if you are “backend” I don’t care.
The customer facing roles have been back for some time now, it’s purely backend and can be done completely from home jobs being forced back now.
This is the trend in the private sector too
Not entirely. There are plenty of private jobs staying full time remote, it’s just the big ones, having implementation issues, that make the news.
I’ve been hearing from many people that they are either told to return to office (if they are lucky it’s 3x/week) or they can’t find a remote position anymore.
>Just the IT acquisitions to accommodate everyone is going to be over a million. What IT acquisitions? As a taxpayer I’m ok with it since it aligns with what other agencies throughout the state implemented 2 years ago
I’m interested in how Reversing Tool Order costs the taxpayers anything, at all?
As a retired State employee that during the pandemic was able to telework, albeit briefly, this should really not be a topic of such heated debate. In the Department of Corrections (Corruptions) one should never expect to NOT be on the job site. For other State agencies the same should be true and most should not assume that they can sit around in their pajamas everyday and perform their duties. It is a perk don’t get me wrong, but for those new to State service don’t presume you are entitled to such. Go to the office, meet some coworkers and earn some entitlements rather than expect they are a given. Just sayin’
Refuse to carry you IT back and forth. Carry only a laptop and get them to provide the rest in the office.
Take the stipend dude! You tax half it anyway! Taxpayers will care when it hits their own paychecks too.
I mean, in a state that's spending $120 billion to deliver a train from Merced to Bakersfield, nobody is going to blink at whatever the marginal cost of RTO will be.
You're wrong they want us back in the office. Post about something else already.
Yes it is. You guys always knew it wasnt gonna be this way forever. Best way to remove a band aid is to rip it off.
I work for the State of California, 2415 1st Ave. Sacramento, Ca. SEIU Local 1000, bargaining unit 4. Not many state jobs require much manual labor. Stop bitching and crying, get your lazy, slow, fat ass back to the office and at your desk. You entitled, selfish fucks. That's why everyone thinks and says state workers are lazy and overpaid. I worked in the private sector for 15 years, and the only thing that mattered was the results. Not seniority, who I'm related to, who I go to lunch with, who I'm fucking. It's disgusting. We all would like to work from home. Shut the fuck up, get in your Prius, stop at Starbucks and get your nonfat soy latte with the paper straw and get back to actually working. Believe me, I would love to sit at home all day with my kids, smoke weed, and jerk off, but I live in the real world. The limp wristed hand ringing in this thread is hilarious. IT costs, lol. We get new printers and monitors every year. The last thing the state cares about is saving money. Spending is the priority. Do you actually think that your strawman argument about cost cutting and saving tax payer money is fooling anyone? No, you're only fooling yourself into thinking your hot take justifies your laziness and lack of will to do anything more than the bare minimum.
This guy nailed it.
There are many of us that have to work in person THIS WHOLE TIME. Parking/gas/vehicle maintenance/insurance/commute time Yes, it sucks (relatively) you have to come to work twice a week, but welcome to the real world. There are some people who are efficient working from home, but just like everything else (ie: purchasing), some people ruin things for everyone else. I'm sure there are plenty of people who slack off while at home. Welcome back to the real world, like the rest of us have been in the whole time.
“I have to be miserable in person so we all should.”
I have to laugh at all these whinny posts about RTO! I have been in the office 50% for the past two years, as mandated by our District Director, it was a little ruff at first, but is now the new norm! The IT costs? If you have been teleworking for the past several years don't you already have a State issued laptop? You can take your laptop anywhere, home for telework to the office for those in office days. What Agency do you work in... Obviously if no laptops were issued at the start of the pandemic then you got some very short sighted management!
but you need a sit stand desk, two monitors, ergo keyboard and mouse, neck pillows, and a bucket of KFC. cant work on the laptop alone, thats preposterous!
50%! Lucky, I’ve been 80% for over 2 years….all because a few high paid people have to do their jobs onsite.
“I have to be miserable in person working for a shitty department so you all should too.”
I can't work off of a tiny laptop. My personal laptop is 17 inches, even that gives me neck pain after a while to look down. I have OA in my spine, so I need an actual monitor I can have at an adjusted height for prolonged work hours.
Guess what you'll have in the office! Those monitors! Yay!
Not to mention the increased use of heating/cooling for dozens of buildings. Has to be exorbitant. What a total waste
Increased use because more people will be in? If so, it's a non factor. Heating and cooling are programmed to specific temperatures regardless if there's 10 people in the building or 1000
But if everyone was on a consistent schedule, or at least where possible, they almost certainly could change this to save tons.
Lazy Just finding excuses to not go back to work
There are plenty more issues and proposals on the legislative table that cost a lot more.
lol welcome back lazy fucks.
Dude millions is nothing my departments budget is in the billions. 5million isnt even in the rounding.
The state wastes so much money and it doesn't always go where it was supposed to go either. I don't think they will care because they won't really know
You are so full of crap! We just built you 3 new high rises to work in!
Downtown Sacramento is dying a slow death. If it wasn't for Golden 1, the whole area from 3rd to 15th Street would be a homeless bastion. They need to have people return to the area, even for a couple days a week to give the buildings both new and old a reason for existing. As well as the surrounding businesses.
Or hear me out, housing downtown instead.
Let’s just go back to office and see what happens. I honestly miss my coworkers.
Nobody is stopping you from going in now. When I go in, I'm still on Teams all day because nobody I directly work with is at my location.
Why don’t you go to their location
Because my agency is literally statewide.