I can't help but feel there's some hidden agenda by whichever anonymous Ohio legislators introduced the provision into the bill.
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Found another article [0], which says:
> Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said the suggestion to force state workers to return to their offices came from a member of the Ohio House. Huffman didn't identify that member. The provision was not part of the House version of the budget.
> [...] Huffman said 10 years ago, when he was in the House, if he had an issue with someone at the Ohio Department of Education, he could walk over to their office and talk to them about it. He said that's not the case anymore. There are times when issues cannot be resolved with a phone call, Huffman also said.
Sounds almost as if the legislators don't like teleconferencing, and miss their ability to go throw their weight around in person at the capitol.
[0] https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2023-06-20/sta...
When employees work from home and meeting requests have to go through proper channels, somebody might have a chance to stop that abuse.
might not even need a lobbyist; it's already in the powers' best interests
Remote workers in the financial sector are 14% less likely to commit fraud or other crimes.
In-person workers are ~15% more likely to commit crimes.
The bad apples want you back into the office to bully you into going along with their crimes.
0 - https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/23rs/sb148.html (died)
1 - https://ballotpedia.org/Kentucky_Constitutional_Amendment_1,...
Not to mention the jealousy and back-stabbing that would result from one office having unlimited remote work and another one having almost none.
The amendment limits remote work for Ohioans working for the state of Ohio. Probably still silly and short-sighted, but not as bad as I was imagining.
State employees also do a lot of different jobs. A park ranger working remotely might indeed be wasteful, but maybe someone who is an accountant gets more done working remotely.
> Ohioans who work for the state of Ohio would be limited to only eight hours of remote work each week
Seems like a pretty arbitrary thing to set in stone.
As @kesslern stated earlier, coffee shops are totally fine still, as are libraries, other people's homes, even the parks...
This is why we should never allow politicians to get involved in politics.
Unless the state wants to pay them overtime.
Specifically state government workers.
Not feeling good about this
State workers are, by definition, working on sensitive materials regarding governance. Therefore, we must ensure that their work is safe and secure, and that access and authorization is controlled.
