Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s recent executive order mandating that nearly all state employees return to the office full-time—five days a week by March 17, 2025—has ignited a debate over its potential to disrupt workforce retention and efficiency. The order, which marks a decisive shift from the remote and hybrid arrangements adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, is aimed at optimizing the use of state-owned facilities and ensuring that public services are delivered in person.

However, when President Joe Biden introduced a more moderate plan urging most employees back to the office 60 percent of the time, turnover soared among senior and highly skilled staff. Those resignations disrupted the very agencies that needed veteran expertise for smooth operations. With DeWine’s even stricter plan, that disruption could become catastrophic. Specifically, research conducted by Mark Ma and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh, which used Revelio Labs data, found that Biden’s relatively modest shift to in-office work led to a 26 percent spike in departures among senior-level professionals and a 32 percent increase in turnover among highly skilled employees. Although these figures pertain to federal agencies, they offer a cautionary tale for state governments now reconsidering flexible work policies.

Further corroboration emerges from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In a November 2024 report, the GAO studied four federal agencies—the Farm Service Agency (FSA), the IRS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA)—to see how telework policies affect recruitment, retention, and performance. At agencies such as the VBA, telework accounted for 66% of total hours worked and provided significant benefits in hiring and keeping employees. The IRS, which cast a wider recruitment net by offering remote options, also saw improved talent acquisition. By contrast, the FSA had only 11% of hours worked via telework and suffered more pronounced recruitment and retention challenges. In interviews with GAO evaluators, FSA officials directly linked these problems to their limited telework offerings.

Data from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) further underlines why flexible work arrangements matter. According to OPM, 72 percent of federal supervisors believe telework maintained or improved productivity, and 84 percent of employees with telework options reported higher job satisfaction. The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey supports this conclusion, with 78 percent of participants crediting telework as a positive contributor to work-life balance. These numbers show that well-structured remote or hybrid arrangements can be a powerful tool for morale and efficiency, rather than a hindrance.

DeWine’s decree reverses years of incremental progress made since the state emergency declaration on March 9, 2020. At that time, remote work was introduced out of necessity, and even after the state of emergency was lifted in June 2021, many state employees had continued to enjoy the benefits of hybrid work arrangements. These flexible work options allowed employees to balance professional and personal responsibilities more effectively, leading to increased job satisfaction and higher productivity. By abruptly ending these arrangements, DeWine risks alienating a significant segment of the state workforce that has grown accustomed to the flexibility that remote work offers. State agencies rely on long-term institutional knowledge to manage complex tasks ranging from technology modernization to policy implementation. The loss of such expertise could lead to significant delays, operational backlogs, and ultimately a decline in public confidence in government efficiency.

While the primary goal of DeWine’s back-to-office decree is to maximize the utility of state resources and enhance public service delivery, the potential drawbacks cannot be ignored. A forced return to full-time in-person work will erode employee morale, precipitate a wave of resignations, and ultimately undermine the efficiency gains the policy aims to secure.

Gleb Tsipursky, PhD, serves as the CEO of the hybrid work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts and authored the best-seller Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams.