Auditor: California could save $225 million a year by letting state employees work remote

Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to have arbitrarily ordered workers back to the office without using specific rationale such as data on worker productivity, according to a newly released report from the California state auditor’s office.

The audit, which state legislators requested in May 2024 after the governor first ordered workers back to the office two days per week after they had been sent to work remotely during the COVID-19 lockdown, found that Newsom’s office failed to gather important information about departments’ office space needs and costs and did not use any data about state workers’ productivity to justify its in-office mandate.

Earlier this year, Newsom signed a new executive order that upped the required in-office days from two to four, but he relented in a series of contracts his administration signed with public employee unions.

State Auditor Grant Parks concluded that California could save as much as $225 million per year and reduce its office space by nearly a third if it sticks to having employees in the office two days a week and working remotely three days a week.

The governor’s office also ignored survey findings from its own oversight agency, the Department of General Services, which had collected estimates from departments on how much office space they would need to bring workers back more often.

“In general, we determined that a one‑size-fits-all approach to telework is counter to state policy and may limit opportunities for significant cost savings,” Parks wrote.

Supporters of work-from-home cheered the report as further vindication for their claims that Newsom’s return-to-office mandates were capricious, politically motivated decisions rather than a true effort to increase worker productivity. Union leaders say flexible hybrid work policies can simultaneously save the state money and help achieve ambitious climate and emissions goals by reducing commuter traffic.

“This audit confirms what has been apparent for some time: Flexible telework benefits taxpayers, state government, and state employees,” said Ted Toppin, executive director of the Professional Engineers in California Government, a union representing state engineers, in a statement Tuesday.

The audit recommended that state lawmakers require departments to identify positions that can successfully telework three days a week and offer such an option. It also instructed the state to develop guidance for departments to evaluate the effectiveness of their telework programs.

Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Newsom, said in a statement that the governor’s office “respectfully disagrees” with the auditor’s findings, which were based on “hypothetical theories and incomplete information.”

“This audit on state telework is not a scientific study, nor does it paint a complete picture of the state workforce or the benefits of working in person,” Gallegos wrote.