Most Minnesota government workers ordered to return to the office 50% of the time

Much of the state workforce will have to start reporting to the office at least 50% of scheduled work days starting June 1, according to a policy change announced Tuesday by Gov. Tim Walz.

The new policy will affect state agencies that have hybrid policies giving employees flexibility on which days they are in the office. There are exemptions in the new mandate for employees who live more than 75 miles away from their main office, according to a statement announcing the change.

“This approach balances the flexibility of telework with the workplace advantages of being in office,” Walz said in the statement. “Having more state employees in the office means that collaboration can happen more quickly and state agencies can build strong organizational cultures more easily.”

The change comes as a growing number of employers call workers back into the office following the pandemic. The federal government has ordered workers back five days a week.

State government is Minnesota’s second-largest employer with a workforce of roughly 40,000 people, not including those employed by colleges and universities.

Megan Dayton, president of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, which represents more than 18,000 state workers, said the policy change was a “shock” and that the union was not included in the decision.

“Five years ago we all went home and we completely changed our lives to accommodate the new reality of the workplace, which is hybrid,” Dayton said. “People don’t have day care. They’ve gone down to one car.”

“We are incredibly disappointed and really fired up,” she added.

Walz’s office said about 60% of state employees already work in-person and did so throughout the pandemic, including correctional officers and Department of Natural Resources employees who do field work.

For those who don’t have to come into the office every day, many agencies have maintained a flexible remote work policy since the pandemic’s start. A survey of nearly 5,000 state employees in 2022 found that 82% said they prefer to be in the office one day a week or less. Agency leaders found that offering flexibility helped with recruitment in a tight labor market.

U.S. workers reported spending about a quarter of their full-pay days working from home in February, compared to more than 60% in May 2020, according to data from the WFH Research monthly Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes.

Many major employers in the state have shifted to requiring in-person work days, including 3M in Maplewood, U.S. Bank in downtown Minneapolis and General Mills in Golden Valley.

Ryan Sully, a Department of Commerce employee, said Walz’s announcement was pushing him to consider a career change.

The benefit of working from home was a huge initial draw when he moved from South Dakota to Minnesota for his job three years ago, Sully said. He said he believed he and his co-workers could likely find other jobs in the private sector that pay better and allow for them to work remotely.

“Especially for a job like mine, I don’t necessarily work with people from Minnesota or people that would be in my office, next to me in a cubicle very often,” he said. “Most of my job is working with people from other states, being on calls with companies that are based somewhere else. I don’t do much collaboration with anyone here.”

Mayor Melvin Carter is pushing for St. Paul’s city employees to return to their offices, announcing last fall that staff would be expected to be at their desks at least three days per week starting April 1. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office estimated that 80% of city employees have been in-office at least three days per week since January.

The governor’s office said having more employees in downtown St. Paul would provide the city with a needed economic boost.

“This policy change supports the economic vitality of office districts like downtown St. Paul, bringing foot traffic back to businesses and public spaces,” the governor’s office said.

Dayton said morale among government workers is already low with layoffs and efforts to slash spending under the Trump administration at the federal level. She said they plan to continue to push for flexible remote work options as they bargain their contract next month, which is often a top priority for people seeking jobs in state government.

“It feels like this is totally driven by money in real estate,” she said. “And trying to justify vacant office buildings in downtown St. Paul.”

With many government office buildings sitting largely empty, state agencies had begun the process of evaluating space needs and whether to consolidate space.

In an email to employees announcing the change, Walz said it’s also “about maintaining good stewardship of state resources, including office space.”

Republican Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, called the move “too little, too late.‘’

“Having state workers work from home for 5 years has decimated St. Paul & been unfair to taxpayers who go to their jobs everyday,” she posted on X Tuesday.

Josie Albertson-Grove, Ryan Faircloth, Emma Nelson, Elliot Hughes and Katie Galioto of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.