State workers are focusing on the job

We appreciate the opportunity to clarify a few issues related to the proposed rescission of the Statewide Non-Mandatory Teleworking Policy and respond to an editorial (“Focus on getting the job done — not where it happens,” Our View, Dec. 6).

In March 2020, state employees were sent home under mandatory teleworking orders, just like the rest of the country. As soon as plans were made for a safe return to the office, many essential employees were called back almost immediately.

In June 2021, the mandatory telework orders were lifted, and the current nonmandatory telework policy was put in place. This policy was bargained with the unions and was not in response to COVID-19. In fact, the policy states in its opening paragraphs, “This policy shall not govern telework arrangements under emergency conditions” and that “Telework is a work alternative that may be appropriate for some employees and some jobs.”

The assertion by the Lujan Grisham administration that “The current policy was put in place specifically in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” is not, in fact, what is stated in the policy. This policy was presented to staff as a new, permanent policy after the end of the mandatory, emergency telework situation.

Under the nonmandatory telework policy, each manager is tasked with determining which employees need to report to the office based on job duties, including how public-facing that position is. Every teleworking employee has filled out a detailed form that was reviewed and approved by their management team, and which allows the opportunity for that manager to deny telework for any reasonable business needs.

What much of the news coverage on this topic has failed to recognize is that at least 62 percent of employees are in the office on any given day. Most employees with a telework schedule report to the office at least once a week, many more than that, and everyone I have spoken with is willing to report to the office whenever needed for meetings, field work, working with clients, etc. However, many aspects of our jobs can be done remotely from home: data entry, confidential client phone calls and reviewing regulatory documents, to name a few. Employees understand when they need to be in the office and why. However, they do not understand why they need to be in the office to complete tasks that can be accomplished more productively from home.

There seems to be an impression that employees in public-facing positions are still being allowed to work from home — that is simply not the case. If you are unable to get services at the Motor Vehicle Division, this is likely a result of the nearly 24 percent vacancy rate statewide, not because the MVD clerk is teleworking.

And as to the question of whether employees will leave if ordered to return to the office? Our members have sent more than 700 letters to the governor explaining how telework facilitates their delivery of services to New Mexicans.

However, even if no one quits after this decision, we are still left with a vacancy rate of 24 percent, even higher in some of our more public-facing positions. How can we expect potential employees to accept a position with the state of New Mexico when other employers in the state are offering higher pay, better benefits and teleworking options?

This administration is failing to connect the dots between agencies’ mission failure and the rising vacancy rate, which is a direct result of poor recruitment and retention strategies.

Megan Green is executive vice president of Communications Workers of America, Local 7076.