Newsom has ordered most state employees to return to the office four days a week starting July 1, 2026, up from a required twice per week.
Department of Fish and Wildlife employee Nikolette Clavel holds a sign at a protest against Newsom’s return to the office mandate on March 12, 2025. On any given day before the pandemic, hundreds of workers would walk the sidewalks circling the State Capitol on their lunch breaks.
But it isn’t as busy in the downtown Capitol corridor as it used to be. A big part of that is state workers are still working remotely a few days a week. Sacramento County is home to California’s largest concentration of state employees – just under 90,000 workers. Gina Garcia-Smith is one of them. She is a former school teacher and now works as a program consultant for the California Department of Education located in downtown Sacramento. Garcia-Smith said the option to work from home has allowed her more flexibility, especially after becoming a new parent.“I'm able to do my job remotely for three days out of the week, that really has improved my quality of life and the amount of time I'm able to spend with my daughter,” Garcia-Smith said. “I'm not, you know, stuck in traffic. I'm able to be present.” Newsom has ordered most state employees to return to the office four days a week starting July 1, 2026, up from a required twice per week. The mandate received pushback from state workers, including Garcia-Smith, who said the ability to telework is a big draw for state jobs. “If we really want to attract and retain quality state workers, it's really important to be able to provide some incentive because clearly pay is not the incentive that's being provided,” she said.this year that would require state agencies to continue offering telework. Other unions representing state workers also support the measure, including CAPS UAW Local 1115, AFSCME 2620, CASE, and PECG. Democratic Assemblymember Alex Lee of Milpitas authored the legislation. His district encompasses Silicon Valley where private-sector telework is typical. Lee argued state workers should continue to benefit from that same opportunity.“This has allowed for people to move further away from Sacramento in places that are more affordable, close to their family networks, instead of all being concentrated in one area. And this has a lot of great potential benefits for the workers themselves,” Lee said.estimated that continued telework for state employees would save California around $225 million a year in real estate and facility costs. Supporters of remote work argue the state should consider that projected savings especially If the legislature approves the bill, Newsom would get the final say. He seemed to dismiss the proposal when asked about it at a recent press conference in Sacramento.backtracked following pushback from labor “I’m for getting us back, so as you know I’ve supported that and I believe we’re on track to do that July 1st,” Newsom added.Downtown business owners are mixed on the mandate Just a few blocks over from the Capitol is K street. The light rail runs down the middle of this once vibrant stretch of restaurants and shops. But the area’s struggled economically since the pandemic when telework took off. Ross Rojek co-owns Capital Books. He said the shop is doing fine business-wise. And on top of that, he says he isn’t convinced a return-to-office mandate for state workers will fix the complex issues facing downtown Sacramento, like homelessness. “I don't know the forcing people to come back in order to make downtown alive again is going to work. You know, you're just going to piss off more people,” Rojek said.Cesar Jimenez owns a chicken sandwich spot, Fire and Crisp. He opened his doors about a year ago and said he picked this spot because he expected more workers to return downtown.“It would be definitely super helpful to have that frequent lunch rush,” Jimenez said. However, that won’t happen without a fight from state worker unions. SEIU Local 1000 said telework will be a big factor for their contract negotiations with the state this year, especially if legislation isn’t successful.The POTUS 2026 State of the Union Address - A PBS News Special KPBS keeps you informed with local stories you need to know about — with no paywall. Our news is free for everyone because people like you help fund it.
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