Nebraska state employees raise concerns over Pillen's return-to-office mandate

In the days since Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen ordered thousands of state employees to return to the office full time in January, more than two dozen have raised concerns over the impact the surprise executive order will have on them — and the state's government.

The Nov. 13 order requires employees of Nebraska's executive branch to "perform their work in the office, facility or field location assigned" from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each weekday, providing few exceptions for the more than 2,855 state employees who had been working in hybrid or remote settings.

“Nebraskans are back to work, and they expect that our agencies are fully staffed and open for business Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” Pillen said in a news release announcing the move. “As public servants, we have a duty to meet that expectation and deliver maximum value to the taxpayers.”

Pillen cast the move as an end to pandemic-era remote and hybrid work, though many state departments had work-from-home policies and procedures in place before the pandemic, including some that date as far back as the mid-2000s.

Read more: https://journalstar.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/jim-pillen-remote-hybrid-work-office/article_e1d32848-894c-11ee-87fd-7fee0284e59a.html