Note- this applies to state workers, and not everyone…
But still…
I think, they should actually PASS this law.
And ENFORCE IT very strictly to where it applies to all of the idiots making this law.
Meaning, The POLITICIANS aren’t allowed to work remote either. Governor, Senate, Congress. All of them.
No working remotely from your vacation home or other country to the lawmakers.
I don’t think that they should pass it, but if they do, they should absolutely enforce it as you describe.
So it pretty much boils down to “well the firefighters can’t work from home so nobody else should be able to either” and “won’t anyone think about the diners and coffee shops?!” There was also some rumbling about being more productive by being physically in the office. Bleh.
I feel like this destroys the only thing I enjoyed about Covid: the complete lack of traffic. You know who else probably enjoyed it? The f****ing firefighters, waste management, and emergency service personnel.
“Nobody wants to work!!!”
I know this has been said elsewhere, but I also find that this continues not caring about the environment too. The amount of saved gas, wear and tear on vehicles, traffic and more was huge. Like in the height of the WFH we saw CO2 reductions that we can’t dream of doing normally, except we proved that we could if we just let people who can and want to WFH and not be burning all those resources.
And the idea that eating out is going to go back to 2019 levels just by making people come in to work ignores the massive inflation, so unless they’re also paying a large percentage more to finance this, even people who want to eat out might not be able to afford to. I’m talking like a 50% increase going to a McDonalds.
I also hate the “It’s not fair” argument - yea, what and when in capitalism has “it been fair” between different jobs?
Finally, the supposed productivity for being on site is going to vary greatly depending on the situation. This idea that no one ever disappeared for an hour or wasted time when people were in an office shows a complete disconnect from reality. I get more “useful” stuff done WFH because instead of only being able to watch Youtube when the office is slow, I can go do a load of dishes or make some calls I need to make.
