Welcome back to the office, state workers.
Monday marked the official return to office for the 44,000 state workers under Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s authority. Last month, the governor signed an executive order requiring state employees to return to a physical office.
Executive Order 2025-01D mandates that permanent employees of state agencies, boards, and commissions under the governor’s authority return to the office—and not work “routinely from a remote location”—by today. DeWine’s order followed a similar one President Donald Trump issued for federal employees the day he was sworn in as the nation’s 47th president.
It “is now in the best interest of the citizens of Ohio for State of Ohio employees to complete a return to a physical office or facility to best serve the public and maximize the use of state-owned assets and facilities,” according to the executive order.
On March 9, 2020, Ohio officials declared an emergency amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of that declaration, some state employees were allowed to work remotely.
The state of emergency ended on June 18, 2021. However, like many federal government employees, some state employees continued working remotely five years later.
“I think what we see at the workplace many times is the interaction between different workers, and when each one of them is remote, we just don’t have that interaction - you don’t have them solving the problems, you don’t have them playing off against each other and talking and rolling up their sleeves and getting the job done,” WBNS-TV quoted DeWine as saying in February. “It’s certainly time to do this.
“For some people, this will be a change,” DeWine added, according to the report. “This will be back to normal. I would look at this as kind of a reset back to where we always used to be in the past.”
According to DeWine’s executive order, most state employees, including correctional and law enforcement officers and state hospital and direct care employees, did not work remotely because of their positions.
WLWT-TV reported that 65% of state workers did not work remotely, and remote work saved the state roughly $15 million annually “through efficient management of state properties.” According to The Columbus Dispatch, about a quarter of state workers work hybrid schedules, while about 10% are fully remote.
Unsurprisingly, some state employees pushed back on the return-to-office mandate. Critics say the return to the office could increase traffic in some places, while local businesses in downtown Columbus, for example, say it could be a boon to their bottom lines.
“I realize that most people are just like, ‘Well, just go back to work. It’s not that big of a deal!’ But I wouldn’t wish that on anybody else,” ABC 6 quoted one employee as saying. “If you can do your job from home? Why not?”
The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA) has argued that allowing state workers to work remotely has benefitted Ohio taxpayers. The union filed a statewide grievance against the executive order and raised concerns about the state’s labor contract.
While the state denied the grievance, OCSEA officials said it “will continue through the grievance process per the collective bargaining agreement.”
“Even before the COVID pandemic state employees have been working remotely and doing their jobs effectively while saving tax dollars,” OCSEA President Christopher Mabe said in a statement, according to WLWT-TV.
Since Gov. DeWine issued his executive order last month, we have fought to ensure our members are treated fairly and the state follows the terms of our collective bargaining agreement,” Mabe added. “We have filed grievances and worked through labor/management meetings as required by our state contract.”
