r/news • u/IchTanze • 11h ago

California state workers launching 1-day strike over return-to-office mandate, pay and healthcare

https://apnews.com/article/california-state-workers-strike-newsom-a3a4f547a612a68360e75e7feaaffb96
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u/Intrinsic_Idiot_3076 9h ago

Restaurants, cleaning companies (office building maintenance), office building constructions, transit companies would hurt the most.

Grocery stores would benefit as more people buy food and prep at home.

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u/TheLuminary 8h ago

Restaurants in the commercial areas might hurt. But the restaurants in the residential areas will not hurt, and may actually boom.

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u/BigBanggBaby 7h ago

Another benefit of multi-use neighborhoods, dining close to home. But there are many people out there who think it’s totally normal or preferable to live in a wasteland of cheap, beige, overpriced homes where it’s a 20 minute drive to a strip mall for Chick-fil-a and 30 minute drive to a decent restaurant or the office. What a waste of everybody’s time.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 4h ago

Plus any time I buy lunch I justify it by thinking "my commute would've cost more than this gyro wrap if I'd gone into the office".

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u/tapirexpress 7h ago

I have coworker that will Su the restaurant likely sucked to begin with so they deserve to go out of business.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 4h ago

Yes maybe. But I do think the number of restaurants that exclusively rely on office worker orders is probably small. Even in a downtown area, I mean people still typically live downtown.

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u/TheLuminary 3h ago

Yup for sure. And they can change their hours to cater to downtown night life clients instead of lunch rush.

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u/LilStrug 9h ago

Hmm, should we never create cures for diseases because of the industry built up to treat the symptoms?

I did the math, my WFH saves my employer over $30k per year. Multiply that be 400 US employees and figure in cost of rent for four office buildings in major cities. That amount is more than the company’s quarterly loss.

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u/Tsunami-Dog 9h ago

Would argue construction companies would not be affected. The same company or another in the same vertical could be hired to do TI work to convert existing to different use cases.

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u/halfblindguy 9h ago

Yeah the commercial construction industry has pretty much transitioned from office towers apartment towers. I'm a project manager and estimator for a commercial metal framing and drywall subcontractor. And apartments are more dense so they are more expensive. But are also a headache.

What used to be a 3 office towers per 1 apartment project ratio has become a 4 apartment tower per 1 office tower ratio. Buildings that were planed to be office towers with maybe a few floors of apartments on thr back have become apartment buildings with maybe 5 floors of office space.

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u/jmlinden7 9h ago

Yeah a lot of people who work from home end up hiring contractors to renovate or expand their home office.

Although I suspect the skills are not easily convertible due to regulations, etc

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u/BlacksmithDry6552 9h ago

Let them hurt. They profit off the fact we have to work to survive.

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u/ILoveLamp9 9h ago

We’ve always had to work to survive. That’s nonsense.

The argument should be that we should have, at minimum, a decent quality of life on a median income based on where we live.

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u/BlacksmithDry6552 9h ago

Yes, but historically we only worked for ourselves and our tribe/town. Not billionaire shareholders. Historically we could build a log cabin and find our own land, hunt, fish, forage. You need permitting and it’s straight up illegal in many places to do these things now. You did not need to make MONEY to survive in the past, because the land provides everything you need.

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u/C0ckkn0ck3r 8h ago

I think that depends on where you are from. Most people throughout history have ultimately worked for Lords in the feudal system. These people worked the land and had to provide certain food rent to their lord. Oh and they couldn't leave. They were the Lords property. And please tell me over the last 1000 years where you could go, find your own land and build a cabin without encroaching on another civilization?

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u/techleopard 7h ago

While this is true, the amount of time actually worked was substantially less historically than it is now.

You had "sunlight" hours, and entire seasons where you did not work that entire period.

People were still able to perform biphasic sleeping up until the industrial revolution, which is a much more natural sleep rhythm for most people and is why many struggle to stay asleep or get up in the morning.

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u/BlacksmithDry6552 8h ago

The majority of people were not serfs lol. And literally in any country, especially 1,000 years ago? Do you know what the population was then?

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u/llIicit 9h ago

First it’s we need to prioritize more public transit, now it’s we need to let them burn. Make it make sense

Many people depend on prepared food to survive. The people who will hurt the most aren’t the people making 1-2% profit at their restaurant. It’s the people who don’t have the ability to cook at home.

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u/Dry_Extension1110 9h ago

People who work from home still eat out, they're more likely to doordash or eat somewhere local to home during the work week.

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u/llIicit 9h ago

So, what you are saying is, WFH can absolutely be detrimental for some businesses. Which was the entire point.

Thank you for agreeing with me I guess lol

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u/Dry_Extension1110 8h ago

Yes, the comment you replied to said let them hurt and I didn't disagree with them. It's a trade off to allow WFH but I'd argue the benefits outweigh the drawbacks primarily affecting downtown businesses.

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u/Born-Sun-2502 8h ago

The adjustment has been made. State workers had been operating this way for 6 years before greasy Gavin forced the return to please his donors. Guess what? Business is down EVEN more in dowtown Sac. State workers are taking up precious parking spaces while spending no $$

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u/stygian07 8h ago

The money I saved from commuting goes to food delivery when I was fully working from home. Now I bring packed lunch to save money whenever Im at the office.

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u/Xalibu2 8h ago

Grocery is moving towards delivery and pre-shopped orders. 

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u/windsockglue 8h ago

If i had a real commitment to WFH, I would have much more flexibility about where to live. Right now my company has a "radius" distance requirement and you're not allowed to move outside of it in an attempt to "trigger" WFH flexibility. They go by where you lived in some date in the past. The radius my work finds to be reasonable is easily a 2 hour in a car in each direction commute where I live. The transit time for the same distance can easily be 2-4 hours at max. We were told years ago that we were very productive with WFH and we would not be back in the office 100% ever again and then they slowly backtracked and jerked us around until we were back to 100% in office.

If I could work from home with an actual commitment, I could have a likely bigger home, have more time (and spend more money) on activities and hobbies, travel more often, have the pets I want and a whole host of other things. I don't know if I would spend that much less, but I would spend very differently and in ways that were more fulfilling to me. Instead my money just goes to gasoline, car maintenance and transit (I already don't eat out near my work. That was true before WFH and is still true after. Sorry. Can't force me.)

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u/Shot_Mind_5801 8h ago edited 8h ago

All other local businesses in people’s hometowns benefit when people WFH.