After opposition from workers, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) reversed his 2025 remote work ban for state employees. Meanwhile, Governing says California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), whose return-to-office mandate has been in effect since July 1, shows no signs of backing down.
His policy stands out glaringly against the ones in other blue states, even against the red state Texas. When it became apparent that telework did not hinder productivity and helped reduce turnover, Abbot walked back his strict implementations.
President Donald Trump set out to have government departments and agencies take steps to terminate remote work. Many federal employee unions worked to fix multiyear contracts to preserve only two office days a week before Trumper entered office.
State workers who voted for Newsom are upset and confused on his stance, claiming they were still able to do their job effectively when ordered to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rachel Greszler, senior research fellow at Advancing American Freedom, says that in California's case, she suspects state agencies cannot accomplish their mission.
"A lot of that might have to do with these very lax telework policies. A lot of them are in collective bargaining agreements with the unions, and that might be prohibiting the state agencies from carrying out the roles and really serving the taxpayers,” says Greszler. “So, I have to think that that's a problem that's going on here."
She said remote work can be a great thing if there is flexibility by leaders, to allow it when it works and to not allow it when it doesn't.
"I think it boils down to the amount of accountability that they have over the public sector workers in California versus Texas,” Greszler says.
California, she states, has one the highest rate of unionized public sector workers.
“Fifty-eight percent of the state's employees are unionized. And you look at the rules that are governing state employees, they have these incredibly restrictive and burdensome collective bargaining agreements,” Greszler says.
She then contrasts that with how the state of Texas does things.
“Just look at Texas, and their public sector employees are virtually at will, most of them. And so, they can have that accountability and efficiency because if they have a worker who is remote and who's not performing, they can implement disciplinary actions," Greszler says.
