California state workers concerned about space after Gavin Newsom’s return-to-office order
Even before the sleek new Natural Resources Agency headquarters opened in 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration hailed it as a symbol of government efficiency.
Agency leaders packed more employees into it than it was originally designed to house. With many workers only coming into offices occasionally, not everyone needed a permanent desk.
“The new headquarters building will accommodate more staff with less space,” the administration touted in a January 2021 budget document. It had called on state officials to find ways to save money as employees were expected to telework for the long term.
But the model that led to accolades four years ago has now created headaches. Newsom’s recent executive order calling state workers back to their offices at least four days a week is forcing agency leaders to quickly come up with plans to fit their employees into less available space.
In the meantime, many workers across the state are left wondering: Where are my colleagues and I going to sit?
Esther Tracy, a senior environmental scientist with the Department of Water Resources, shares a desk in the natural resources building, as do many of her colleagues. After the governor’s sudden decision last week, facilities staff circled around empty desks, trying to figure out if they were already occupied and being shared.
“We do not have enough space,” said Tracy, a district director for the California Association of Professional Scientists. She said department employees were told in a meeting that they may have to move from the building.
If that will happen is not yet clear. Newsom ordered state agencies under his administration to come up with plans in the coming weeks. The new policy takes effect July 1.
Karla Nemeth, the director of the Department of Water Resources, acknowledged there were “space availability issues” in a memo to employees, obtained by The Sacramento Bee, that was sent a day after Newsom’s order. Nemeth said the department would be working to “understand where space challenges exist” within the building.
Ryan Endean, a department spokesperson, directed questions to the state’s human resources agency “for any comment on timing and planning for next steps as we’re awaiting guidance on how to proceed with the return to office order.”
For its part, the Governor’s Office did not answer emailed questions about whether it had conversations with agency leader about office space availability before deciding to ordering people back more often.
Instead, a spokesperson for the Government Operations Agency, Roy Kennedy, responded on its behalf. Kennedy said agencies are supposed to send their plans to accommodate in-person work by April 1 to the Department of General Services, the state’s business manager, and that the department would then notify the Governor’s Office of any concerns with the plan.
Space issues unknown
Along with offices, the 21-story Natural Resources building features a fitness center, food court and a large auditorium that Newsom himself has used when presenting state budget plans.
The California Energy Commission was one of the agencies that moved into the building after it opened.
Before that, its almost 700 employees were working at a state-owned office nearby, The Bee reported at the time.
A commission spokesperson, Sandy Louey, declined to answer emailed questions asking if employees shared desks and if the agency was considering moving into another office when the new order goes into effect.
As of December, its staff was more than 870 employees, according to state data.
Louey responded with an almost identical statement sent by the spokesperson for the operations agency. So did communications officials for several other government divisions that use the building and the Natural Resources Agency itself. Only some officials provided more specific details.
The Fish and Game Commission’s 12 employees currently do not share work space in the building, its executive director Melissa Miller-Henson said in an email. The California Water Commission has a staff of eight, spokesperson Paul Cambra said in an email, and none share desks.
The full extent of the state’s office space issues at other buildings is not known. The Department of General Services was not able to immediately provide the total square footage of all state offices that it leased or owned in January 2020 and earlier this year.
In the 2021 budget document, Newsom’s administration said the Department of Fi$Cal, which has overseen a long-running project to combine state financial operations into one system, would be “relinquishing much of its leased office space as they transition most staff to permanent telework.”
When asked if the department was changing its plans in response to the recent order, a spokesperson shared a similar version of the generic statement used by other officials.
The administration, in 2022, said the general services agency was projecting to reduce the state’s total leased office space by 20%, which would save the state roughly $85 million a year. That effort could be contributing to issues arising now.
Employees at several other agencies told The Bee they have concerns about the amount of available office space and the number of cubicles and desks they and their colleagues will have once the order goes into effect.
Richard Lovvo, an analyst for bond accountability with the Department of Water Resources, shares those concerns. He has his own desk, but several of his coworkers do not.
Lovvo is on a team of eight. Four of their cubicles are shared with employees who come in on alternate days. Some of Lovvo’s coworkers have struggled to find open spaces to use if they try to work at the building on a day beyond one they are assigned to be there.
Like many state workers, he wonders why Newsom decided to issue the order now.
“I don’t know if they have room to bring more desks in,” Lovvo said, “but they’re going to have to do something.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California state workers concerned about space after Gavin Newsom’s return-to-office order."
