For Hampton resident Katrina Bailey, working from home was a godsend during the coronavirus pandemic.

Bailey, who worked part-time as an academic adviser at Virginia Peninsula Community College, said she was able to complete her work effectively while watching her son, Maxwell. She worked a hybrid schedule, going into the office two days a week and working remotely the other three.

“It worked very well for my family,” Bailey said. “It wasn’t a burden. I was still able to meet all the criteria that I needed in my job. I was also about to go above and beyond in my job.”

All that changed on May 5, when Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered all state government employees to head back to their offices full-time starting July 5.

For Bailey, that change was simply untenable. She made $18.12 an hour at her job, and child care, which she said cost around $10 an hour, would eat up too much of her paycheck. Gas prices would also remove a large chunk of her check.

So, she quit.

The Youngkin back-to-office policy is restrictive and may force out workers who need child care and elder care, Virginia government employees and advocates say. Additionally, they say it takes away a selling point for government work while the state loses employees to retirement and private businesses competing for workers.

“It’s just an unworkable framework,” said Dylan Bishop, a lobbyist for the Virginia Governmental Employees Association advocacy group.

The Youngkin directive has a waiver component for those who wish to continue remote work, but the process is obtuse, Bishop said. Workers must get their waivers approved by their senior-most agency head for one day of remote work and by the corresponding Youngkin administration secretary for two days. For three or more days a week of remote work, Youngkin’s Chief of Staff Jeff Goettman also needs to sign off.

Bailey applied to work three days a week from home, but said her supervisor’s boss refused to advance applications unless just one day a week was requested. She brought the issue to the college’s human resources department, but couldn’t receive an answer.

With the May 20 waiver submission deadline coming up, Bailey said she was forced to make the decision to resign rather than engage with the process any longer.

“I have to make immediate decisions to benefit my family,” Bailey said.

The Youngkin administration approved 9,866 telework waivers as of July 5, or around 46% of the eligible workforce, according to data provided by the administration. The majority of those waivers, around 89%, were approved for just one or two days of telework. Around 10% of workers got approved for three or more days, and 6% were allowed to work remotely five days a week.

“Through this process, the administration has found that the vast majority of telework eligible employees chose to work in the office at least three days per week,” Rob Damschen, Youngkin deputy communications director, said in an email. He also echoed Youngkin’s assertion that going back to the office would promote collaboration and teamwork.

But the new telework policy raised worker concerns around rising costs and child care, according to a survey of more than 400 state workers conducted by Virginia Governmental Employees Association and released June 13. About half of respondents mentioned rising gas costs, and one in four said child care was their top concern.

The survey report showcased some participant comments, including: “Gov. Youngkin said during his campaign that he was for the parents and putting families first. So let’s do that.”

Survey respondents also complained that the rushed and confusing policy meant different agencies interpreted it in different ways, sometimes to the detriment of employees. This chaos directly affected Bailey. In late May, Youngkin said that workers who needed to make child care arrangements could work remotely five days a week until Labor Day.

“That was never communicated to me,” Bailey said.

Instead, she received contradictory information from her superiors, which ultimately led to her choosing to quit.

Bishop said other workers have also encountered similar problems.

“We have seen that there is a lack of uniformity across different agencies,” he said.

Youngkin’s policy is a significant blow to the state’s retention and recruitment efforts, Bishop said. Attracting workers is a must as employees continue to retire.

Baby boomers make up around 45% of the state government workforce, and the average age of a state worker is 47, according to a 2016 study from the Virginia Department of Human Resource Management. The retirement rate in 2016 was just under 3%, but one out of every four workers was eligible for retirement by 2021.

Another challenge is the state isn’t able to raise employee salaries quickly enough to keep pace with private industries, since it requires action from the General Assembly, Bishop said. The 2016 study concludes that state worker wages are lower than average, causing hiring pools to become smaller and departments unable to pay applicants the salaries they ask for.

So, remote work in the past represented a valuable way to attract the best job applicants. Youngkin’s order erased that advantage, Bishop said.

For Bailey, the order and the resulting chaos spoke volumes about the administration’s priorities. And her priority is her family over her job.

“I just think it’s a powerful statement to say you want people to come back to offices when we’re still trying to recover,” she said.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com