Even in Marin, they’re tapping their watches for employees to return to the office.
If any jurisdiction seemed ripe for flexibility in bridging the work-life-balance divide, the place known for mountain biking to the office and employee yoga breaks might be particularly sympathetic to permanent remote work. But now the county where “sittin’ by the dock of the bay” is considered a statement of purpose is asking staff to “come in” every once in a while.
In early November, the County of Marin began requiring flex-work employees in its IT department to work twice weekly from the office, with that number bumping to three days beginning Jan. 5. The new flex requirements were first reported last month by the Marin Independent Journal, following an October meeting of the county Board of Supervisors, when several county employees complained during the public-comment time of the new scheduling, in which the standard is that employees work more often than not on site. Disgruntled workers described having to pay more for gas and childcare as akin to a reduction in salary.
About 43% of the county’s 2,300 regular workers are on a hybrid schedule, the IJ reported. The return to the office will be more inconvenient for some than others—at least one county library employee lives in New Mexico, while another lives in Guatemala, the IJ story said. (Those two situations are temporary and have been approved by managers, county officials told the newspaper.)
Remote work has been something of a job negotiation since the pandemic, when nearly everyone worked from home for about a year. Since 2023, the number of companies requiring workers at the office at least three days a week rose by 37%. That said, over the same time frame, job postings offering hybrid schedules rose from 15 to 24%. About 52% of remote-capable jobs today are hybrid, according to gallup.com.
The County of Marin is hardly alone in its expectations for employee on-site appearances. Last spring, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered full-time state employees return to the office at least four days per week; San Francisco Mayor Dan Lurie issued a similar dictum for municipal workers in February.
Elsewhere in the North Bay, Sonoma and Napa counties haven’t refined remote-work policies to the degree of their neighbors to the south. That said, not all counties’ economies offer the same degree of remote-eligible jobs—municipal or not—as others. San Francisco and Santa Clara, for instance, have the most remote-eligible jobs, due to the size of their tech sectors. Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties are fifth, seventh and ninth respectively among the nine Bay Area counties for remote-eligible jobs.
Remote-friendly counties
Here’s how the nine Bay Area counties line up regarding over-all remote-eligible jobs
San Francisco 51%
Santa Clara 51%
San Mateo 47%
Alameda 40%
Marin 39%
Contra Costa 38%
Sonoma 32%
Solano 29%
Napa 26%
Source: Bay Area Council Economic Institute