1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to come out against employees of the State of California being forced back to in person work regardless of the conditions they were hired under, the ability of their department to house all the workers, and the scientifically proven positive effect that working from home has on productivity. Executive Order N-22-25 forces state workers back in to an office for at least 4 days of the workweek. Many of these workers have been on a hybrid or telework schedule since even before the pandemic, and this executive order is overreaching and will be incredibly disruptive to the essential functions that state employees serve. State workers have planned their lives around the ability to telework, but now instead of focusing on their jobs, they’ll be focusing on if their office can fit their whole team, where they’ll park, paying for parking, what their kid will do afterschool while they sit in traffic on the way home, the increased cost of gas, and more. If it’s an attempt to convince state workers to quit, it’ll probably work as the increased cost to employees makes returning to in office work essentially a pay cut in a time when the cost of everyday items is soaring. I was under the impression that the State of California originally embraced telework as a way to eliminate geographic location as a barrier from getting the best of the best employees. Californians deserve to be served by the best and this misguided executive order should not get in the way. I voted for you, and in the past you’ve represented my interests well. I hope you come out publicly supporting state workers by opposing Executive Order N-22-25.