SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After six years of teleworking, California’s state employees have become fluent in software such as Google Docs and Microsoft Teams to work with their colleagues and get their jobs done.

But on Wednesday, the first day of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s return-to-office order, state workers were still working from their laptops — just from government offices.

“You see people two, three seats away on a (Microsoft) Team’s call with one another,” said Jordan Adams, an Employment Development Department employee. “This idea that we’re in the same space, and they’re going to have meetings together, it’s a fairy tale at this point.”

One of the central reasons Newsom cited for bringing employees back to offices was to promote collaboration among colleagues. But state workers said Wednesday that they have been working together effectively from home for the past six years.

The roll-out of Newsom’s return-to-office mandate happened in the middle of a short workweek for many state employees who are taking Friday off to celebrate the Fourth of July. The full brunt of the transition back to in-person work likely won’t be felt until next week when employees are actually required to be offices for most of the week.

Over 2,500 state employees were also not in offices Wednesday, but were instead gathered on the Capitol grounds to rally support for SEIU Local 1000’s active contract negotiations and to protest the return-to-office order.

Some state workers reported they encountered more traffic than usual driving downtown, but a review of Sacramento-area highways using Caltrans cameras indicated that roads were not significantly more congested on the first day of the return-to-office order compared to other mornings.

Some business owners in downtown Sacramento reported higher than usual levels of foot traffic, which was at least part of Newsom’s motivation from calling workers back to offices, but other restaurant employees said Wednesday was pretty normal compared to other days.

Several other EDD employees who spoke with The Sacramento Bee said they are performing their jobs in the same ways they would at home, but instead doing it from a downtown office.

“It’s ridiculous that we have to jump through all of these hoops in order to fulfill this RTO mandate,” said Brian Leon Guerrero, an EDD information technology specialist. He said that his division is only required to be in office three days a week for now because of spacing issues.

Due to space limitations at the Labor Agency Building on 9th and O streets, EDD has exempted some employees from coming into state offices four days a week. Other departments have either modified workers’ telework schedules or delayed the start date of the return-to-office order due to office space limitations. The Newsom administration has said that information about office space is confidential.

Steven Boyd, a union steward for SEIU Local 1000, said that agencies are relying on exemptions, delays, rotations and workarounds to make the mandate appear functional.

In person work has also created additional steps for some employees.

Monica Tarbuskovich, an employee in the California Civil Rights department, said she and her coworkers have to reserve a desk in the May Lee State Office Complex where she works before coming into the office. Tarbuskovich is on leave until later this month, but that request has to be submitted and approved by an on-site manager.

Diego Hamernik, a staff archaeologist, has worked at the California Department of Transportation’s Oakland office for seven months. He said he accepted the job offer because he could work remotely three out of five days per week. Now that the return-to-office mandate has taken effect, Hamernik says completing his daily three-hour commute four times a week will be a significant strain.

“I’m not going to have any time to do anything,” Hamernik said.

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