After pushing remote work before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt now wants state employees to come back to the office full time in early 2025. Stitt issued an executive order on Wednesday directing state employees to perform their work in an office, facility, or field location assigned by their agency by Feb. 1.The move mirrors an effort pushed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the unelected businessmen appointed by incoming President Donald Trump to study government efficiency at the federal level. Stitt, in a press release, said pandemic-era work arrangements should end. “COVID altered the way we did business for a time, but that time has passed,” Stitt said. “Now, we need to put stewardship of taxpayer dollars as our top priority. Oklahomans deserve a government that operates with full accountability and delivers services effectively. Returning to traditional work environments is a critical step in achieving that goal.”  the latest Stitt Ends State Employee Telework Options by Paul Monies December 20, 2024December 19, 2024 Stitt’s executive order includes several exceptions. Agencies that have eliminated office space in the last few years and would have problems accommodating a full return to office could get an exception from the policy. Agency executives can also approve teleworking for employees with non-standard work hours. The Department of Corrections used the increased use of state employee teleworking to move its Oklahoma City headquarters this year. Agency leaders found space at the Oklahoma Health Care Authority building north of the Capitol partly because more Health Care Authority employees were teleworking. Stitt put the Office of Management and Enterprise Services in charge of collecting data from agencies on teleworking status after the executive order goes into effect. OMES had almost 30% of its employees working remotely in fiscal year 2024, the agency disclosed in budget documents this year. Another 60% of the agency’s 1,036 employees were in a hybrid work arrangement, which means they were onsite two to four days per week. As a state agency, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education will comply with the executive order, said Angela Caddell, associate vice chancellor for communications. “State system institutions are reviewing the EO, and any next steps will be determined by the respective campus governing boards,” Caddell said in an email. The latest statewide employee engagement survey, issued by OMES in July, showed widespread satisfaction with telework or a hybrid arrangement. The survey had responses from 16,000 employees across 111 state agencies. “Respondents indicating either hybrid or full-time telework had slightly higher favorable responses related to engagement and satisfaction,” the report said. “Among those indicating a full-time or hybrid telework status, engagement is slightly higher and satisfaction is slightly lower among employees working hybrid schedules.” Department of Government Efficiency Musk and Ramaswamy said in a Wall Street Journal opinion column last month their reform project, which they dubbed the Department of Governmental Efficiency, could lead to lower costs if the federal government got rid of telework. “Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the COVID-era privilege of staying home,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in the opinion column.Some Oklahoma lawmakers said Stitt’s executive order could hamper efforts to keep state employment competitive with the private sector. In recent years, lawmakers on a bipartisan basis have expanded state benefits to include 6 weeks of paid maternity leave for state employees. “We want great jobs in our state with opportunities for advancement,” said Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City. “These state positions need to be competitive with modern employers to provide high quality, desirable jobs. We were just hearing cost savings reports from state agencies who moved positions to remote work. What will it cost in taxpayer funds with this U-turn?” House Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City, said offering telework as an option to prospective state employees helps recruitment, especially in rural areas. “With all the costs of getting to work, paying for gas and car maintenance, especially if you’re living in a rural area, being able to access a job and being able to work from home is a huge benefit,” Munson said. “And it’s a way to grow our workforce for state employees.” Munson said both private and public sector employees have reevaluated their work-life balance in the wake of the pandemic. “We spend the majority of our days working,” Munson said. “If you can work from home and be as effective and efficient in the comfort of your home, why would we take that away from folks? It’s very confusing.” The Department of Human Services, which at more than 6,200 employees is the state’s largest agency, had 44% of its workforce working remotely in fiscal year 2024. DHS closed dozens of county offices in the early part of the pandemic and pushed employees to telework or to be embedded with other social service agencies, The Frontier found in a July, 2021 investigation.In his 2021 State of the State address, Stitt touted the benefits of teleworking for state employees. He mentioned an employee called Cody, who worked for the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission in Idabel. “Cody was doing way more work than his title and job description indicated, but factors out of his control made a promotion nearly impossible,” Stitt said in the speech. “One of those factors was location. An agency policy required directors to live in Oklahoma City. Generations of Cody’s family had lived in Idabel and a promotion wasn’t worth leaving his family. It took a pandemic – and my Executive Order to have state employees working from home – to change the policy so he could become a director.” Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies.  MORE FROM PAUL MONIES Berry-Rock and Beyond: How Ex-Secretary’s Investment Ties Sparked Lawsuits, Audits and Controversy State’s New Mental Health Center Faces Huge Construction Cost Overrun  Rent-To-Buy Company Has Big State Investment, Limited Customer Options The post Stitt Ends State Employee Telework Options appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.