Gavin Newsom’s Return-to-Office Mandate Challenged as Workers Turn Tables on Governor

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[nickcarraway]

State employees are fighting back against Gov. Gavin Newsom ordering them off the couch and back into the office, arguing that by doing so thousands of additional cars will be on the road, hurting the state’s efforts to be carbon neutral.

In a blistering exhaustion letter, the California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment (CASE) argued that any agency adopting Newsom’s Return-to-Office executive order (RTO) without first studying its environmental fallout is violating the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.

The union blasted the mandate as a “discretionary project” under CEQA, which requires state and local agencies to review and disclose the environmental impact of major actions before moving forward. CEQA mandates agencies “disclose and evaluate the significant environmental impacts of proposed projects and adopt all feasible mitigation measures to reduce or eliminate those impacts,” the letter noted

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: gavinnewsom

[Ronaldus Magnus III]

thousands of additional cars will be on the road

Horsepucky!

Mandate that all State workers use the public mass transit they want all of us to use!

C'mon, Man!

If you are a State worker and do not live near a bus or light rail...... How Dare You!

Move closer to the politically correct mass transit!

Don't you want to do your part to save the planet?

[FrankRizzo890]

I like this! Make them live by their rules.

[nickcarraway]

Public transportation is for the unwashed masses, not them.

[Recompennation]

As opposed to what, these sudo welfare recipients now being out on the road at all hours of the day and impeding the working man or them riding a desk supervised in one place.

[XRdsRev]

Most office workers do not need to be in an office. It is not 1960 anymore and almost any function and collaboration can be performed online. Empty or downsize the office space, save the taxpayer some money. Return to office (in many cases) is a misguided, incredibly expensive and wasteful exercise.

[ridesthemiles]

I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THAT THEY ARE ACTUALLY WORKING ANYWHERE NEAR 8 HOURS FOR THEIR PAY AT HOME.

[Valpal1]

Government workers do, or they don’t work.

[XRdsRev]

I seriously doubt most workers anywhere work their full 8 hours. People tend to find ways to goof off everywhere. And if you think goofing off in an office is impossible, you probably never worked in an office.

[XRdsRev]

“Government workers do, or they don’t work.”

Perhaps some do, I don’t know and neither do you. I guess reasonably it could be thought that Perhaps you are lazier than all of them. At least we can track what they do.

[Valpal1]

I live Blue Oreganistan. The public employee’s union runs this state and nobody would dare track at home worker output. Our town no longer has a DMV, we have to travel 20 miles to the next town over.

I, on the other hand, created and educated 4 human beings who are successful tax paying citizens. Now I manage the office of my husband’s very successful auto repair shop. I also cook lunch daily for all the mechanics.

[dennisw]

Most office workers do not need to be in an office. It is not 1960 anymore and almost any function and collaboration can be performed online. Empty or downsize the office space, save the taxpayer some money. Return to office (in many cases) is a misguided, incredibly expensive and wasteful exercise.
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Stop being a moron. We are talking about California gov’t workers here. You cannot possibly be so stupid. You are probably talking about your own personal situation (private sector) where people can be productive remotely.

[XRdsRev]

Who’s being a moron ? Me who can cite various studies (including from President Trump’s own OPM in 2026) showing that telework actually improves productivity in government workforces or you who is just using their personal bias to believe that government workers just goof off. You can believe in whatever you want but having real data not just a personal opinion is what is meaningful.

Are there POS govt employees who abuse telework ? Absolutely (we saw some of these Jack a$$es on YouTube) but those examples were few and far between. Even during COVID when teleworking was at its highest, no agencies reported a decrease in productivity and some like DOD actually reported increases in work getting done.