This is a very good bill and fits perfectly with our telework initiative. Dan deserves a ton of credit and support for this. I’ve said before that we should treat red air days like snow days, but this is better. (The private sector should adopt this too).
Last year we started a telework initiative w 130 employees working from home 3-5 days/week. We measured everything they did for 6 months and the results exceeded our expectations. Of course we took cars off the road and pollution out of the air, but productivity also went up 20%!
Oh, and the employees were happier too. Our plan is to have 2,000+ employees teleworking by the end of this year. We have already cancelled building leases. Over time we will build fewer building and save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
I hope that one of the lessons we learn from this pandemic is a thoughtful re-thinking of a modern workforce and the possibility of remote work. For many it will require a paradigm shift, but the benefits are too strong to ignore.
2 more things. The primary reason I pushed for telework was to increase employment in rural Utah. People in small towns can apply for these jobs or take their job and move back home. Also home/work flexibility leads to increased opportunities for women and more upward mobility!
