[HN Gopher] Amendment introduced to limit remote working in Ohio
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Amendment introduced to limit remote working in Ohio
Author : biscuits1
Score : 27 points
Date : 2023-06-26 21:15 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wdtn.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wdtn.com)
| jrs235 wrote:
| Question: Are state employee pensions considered income earned in
| the state the employee worked while earning it? Or can they move
| out of state and avoid state income taxes? Should they be able
| to?
| drdec wrote:
| The headline is misleading, the amendment would limit remote work
| for the state of Ohio.
| chasingthewind wrote:
| > If the measure survives, Ohioans who work for the state of
| Ohio would be limited to only eight hours of remote work each
| week.
|
| Specifically state government workers.
| karaterobot wrote:
| That is, it applies only to people who work for the state
| government of Ohio specifically.
| renewiltord wrote:
| Remember: regulations are written in blood.
| trickyager wrote:
| While generally fair, if this were specifically true for
| regulations about remote work, then working from home would be
| promoted and not limited.
| [deleted]
| jkubicek wrote:
| > If the measure survives, Ohioans who work for the state of Ohio
| would be limited to only eight hours of remote work each week.
|
| 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.
| thehappypm wrote:
| As a taxpayer I think in-person work reduces waste
| EA-3167 wrote:
| What's the evidence for your belief? What sort of waste are
| we talking about? Is that waste enough to offset the
| fuel/time use for commuting?
| darklion wrote:
| Citation needed.
| [deleted]
| diegoholiveira wrote:
| It's a personal opinion, citation is not required.
| LadyCailin wrote:
| No it's not. A personal opinion would be "I wish people
| would work in person more often." "In person work reduces
| waste" is a (perhaps true, perhaps not) statement of
| fact, which is very reasonable to ask for a citation
| about.
| tomrod wrote:
| Subjective judgements which are quantifiably proven or
| disproven should be replaced with evidence.
| vore wrote:
| Well, as a taxpayer I think in-person work increases waste.
| Now it's even!
| aeze wrote:
| I'd be careful of such a generalization. Studies seem to be a
| wash. I'd imagine it depends on the policies and processes of
| a given organization.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| Remote work is the ultimate way to get offices to become
| paperless.
| chrismcb wrote:
| I don't know why you need to clarify that you are a taxpayer.
| But I would argue that in person work creates more waste.
| Between commuting and real estate. It might be easier for a
| remote worker to not work, but it should be easy for a
| manager to notice their employee isn't working.
| [deleted]
| vlunkr wrote:
| This applies only to employees of the state:
|
| > 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.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| during an adjustment phase of residential real estate in the
| continental US, maybe around 2008-2010.. one of the very few
| places in the entire US where home prices fell, was in Ohio.
| carabiner wrote:
| How can I even sleep knowing Ohio exists?
| MissTake wrote:
| Me too & I live in this godforsaken state.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Lots of better states to choose from friend, all nearby!
| kneebonian wrote:
| Well this is about the kind of thing I'd expect from Ohio....
| pipeline_peak wrote:
| I work remotely from Virginia...centered in Ohio.
|
| Not feeling good about this
| MissTake wrote:
| "Prohibits state employees from working from home for more than
| eight hours per forty hour workweek for the time period beginning
| October 1, 2023, and ending June 30, 2025."
|
| 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.
| kesslern wrote:
| It's not mentioned in the article but the language is such that
| state employees are limited to 8 hours of working from home.
| Coffee shops, a neighbor's house, restaurants, all fine.
| jonny_eh wrote:
| Maybe they can work at a library, those are government
| buildings afterall.
| onemoresoop wrote:
| Nice loophole find.
| Terr_ wrote:
| OK, so _state employees_ would be hard-limited to 8h /week... But
| why does that policy need to be codified into _state law_ across
| all possible state employees and agencies, and not just a policy
| decided by different agencies or offices or managers?
|
| I can't help but feel there's some hidden agenda by whichever
| anonymous Ohio legislators introduced the provision into the
| bill.
|
| ____
|
| 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...
| lvspiff wrote:
| I'm unfortunately inclined to look at it from the negative side
| -- Its more like they don't like writing it down and/or having
| a paper trail of some sort. Its hard to achieve that when you
| have to schedule a virtual meeting or type up an email. Even a
| phone call leaves a record of there being interaction. They
| don't want THAT and I see that happening in corp culture to. If
| its not on a person's calendar, in a discussion thread, or
| there wasn't an email then it didn't happen and there is
| plausible deniability. Its like the madmen method of the board
| room back deals is being taken away from them and its too
| difficult to let go.
| unsupp0rted wrote:
| I suppose if it's a state law it reduces all the time wasted by
| employees renegotiating this every month or so on a per-office,
| per-boss level.
|
| Not to mention the jealousy and back-stabbing that would result
| from one office having unlimited remote work and another one
| having almost none.
| jonny_eh wrote:
| That, or commercial real estate is a powerful lobby group.
| giantrobot wrote:
| Sounds like a case of "and" rather than "or".
| jonny_eh wrote:
| and/or, as in `||`
| notatoad wrote:
| So basically the same justification as every push to get
| employees back in the office: Very Important People want to be
| able to yell at employees who dont actually work for them, but
| are beneath them in an org chart.
|
| When employees work from home and meeting requests have to go
| through proper channels, somebody might have a chance to stop
| that abuse.
| analog31 wrote:
| Perhaps more importantly, Very Important People don't want to
| leave a record of their conversations.
| rodgerd wrote:
| > and miss their ability to go throw their weight around in
| person at the capitol.
|
| 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.
| cebert wrote:
| Are employees of state universities considered to be employees of
| the state? If so, it seems like this legislation could be
| impactful to academia.
| analog31 wrote:
| Generally yes (former State U employee, and spouse of State U
| employee). On the other hand, salaried workers aren't required
| to report their hours.
| [deleted]
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