California state workers return to the office 4 days a week beginning July 1

The City of Sacramento is on the cusp of transformation as most state workers are set to return to the office four days a week under a mandate ordered by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The move is expected to impact a lot of people directly and indirectly because a little more than 16%, roughly one in six, of people employed in the Sacramento area are state workers.

Newsom's original plan was for state workers to return to the office under this new telework model in July 2025, before being delayed by a year. State employees have only been required to be in the office two days a week since 2024.

The mandate has been a controversial topic since it was first announced by Newsom.

An audit requested by Republican assemblymember Josh Hoover found the governor's office didn't gather some important information about space needs and costs before ordering employees back and that some departments don't even have the space for all of their employees to return after ending office leases during the pandemic.

Newsom's office said it respectfully disagreed with the findings.

Robert Rickert is an analyst at the California Water Resources Control Board at 10th and I streets. He says his office space also does not have enough room for every employee to be there at once.

Rickert noted that telework allowed his department to "hire a lot more people" and said the return-to-work mandate means they will be "cramming people wherever they can cram them."

But some business owners said the lack of state worker foot traffic since the pandemic has greatly affected their business.

For 15 years, Mayahuel restaurant has been a Downtown Sacramento staple, just a block from the California State Capitol. Longtime Sacramento-area restaurateur and owner Ernesto Delgado said these years since the pandemic have been the hardest in his career.

"We can't have empty buildings," Delgado said.

Delgado said losing so many state workers to remote work for years now has hit his own bottom line and left too many downtown businesses forced to close.

"Restaurants provide jobs, not just busboys, bartenders, and cooks," he said. "We provide jobs for the Sacramento region."

During the peak of the pandemic, two businesses were opening for every one closing. Today, that's jumped to four openings for every one closing, according to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership.

"Pre-pandemic, we had close to 100,000 employees downtown. We're about maybe 60% of that back," Delgado said.

So with Nwsom's return-to-office mandate, that means the remaining 40% of state workers could help flood downtown with more foot traffic and much-needed support for local businesses.

"When you take out almost a third of the workforce, it's not hard to understand what those impacts to businesses and activity have been," Delgado said.

A newcomer on the block is Sana'a Cafe, which opened in late 2024.

At Sana'a, Tuesdays are the busiest. That's when Hesham Hussain said they serve the most state workers. Now, he hopes for a Tuesday every day.

"It will definitely help the businesses immensely — not just in my block, but across the downtown corridor," Hussain said.

Small business owners see this new mandate as hope on the horizon.

"That's why I'm so passionate about this, right? Because it's a bigger picture than just our little restaurants downtown or my restaurants in particular... I want our economy to come back," Delgado said.

The Downtown Sacramento Partnership said to help prepare downtown for the added influx of workers coming back in person nearly every day, they've hired more private security to patrol and help promote safety. They also say it's already reducing crime and camping on downtown streets.