by Dan Burns

Apr 22, 2025, 8:00 AM

Forced returns to the office are foolish, bad calls

Late last month Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who for the most part has done a pretty solid job, announced a return to the office policy for state workers. They’ll now be required to be at workplaces at least half the time. I thought he might back down, but he hasn’t.

For years I lived in Ramsey and worked in Eden Prairie. It meant fighting traffic for usually 2+ hours/day that I’ll never get back, mostly on 169. I loathed that commute with great, powerful loathing, and remembering it brings back those same feelings, and perhaps that’s got me unfairly biased on this issue. But I don’t think so.

Life is short! And there are few bigger forced wastes of precious quantities of it than work commutes. I get that for some people that’s not totally true because it’s about the only time they get to be by themselves and listen to what they want on the radio and think about things. That’s not the case for a large majority, though. They feel pretty much as I did, and with damn good reason.

By working from home some people get to take care of their own young children. Nothing against quality daycare providers, but they’re expensive. And many parents would rather raise their own kids, as much as possible, even though the little darlings can drive you right to the edge. That’s how it is.

There’s this thing called climate change that apparently these back to the office types don’t think matters, at least not in this context. Forcing people to burn more (expensive) gasoline and spew more carbon? Come on! And because it will make rush hour traffic even worse overall there’s a multiplier effect.

This has interesting current data about remote/hybrid work. This summarizes the benefits of remote work for both employers and employees. Of course you can find plenty of crap from right-wing propaganda mills that claims otherwise. I suggest not wasting your time and effort reading any of that.

Finally, there are a lot of better options out there for dealing with downtown St. Paul. Transitions take time. And Walz’s misguided order isn’t going to be a big magic “fix” in any case.

Comment from Joe Musich: This is a tough one as there are buildings that have been created for people to work. It is an industrial era model prior to technology. But creating that technology also has its environmental consequences, more since the collective we does a terrible job recycling copper, etc from all kinds of equipment. If that continues more earth ripping will be the result. Every one of the components from mining to the selling of final devices has a stake in the process. And if many work from home how do we recycle the building people go to work to? And how much do people who work from home need to be accommodated for the “rental” of their homes? More questions and consequences could be listed. The problem is we did not plan thoroughly enough for what we have at our doorstep. I am a retired teacher; should all teaching be done online ? And so on and so forth. I just might go out and look for a cozy cave.