King County’s new top executive is already running into a wall of worker frustration after ordering many office-based employees back to their desks at least three days a week by June 1. Staffers say the timeline is rushed, the rollout ignores basic realities like limited desk space, and the order clashes with how their jobs were originally advertised to remote hires who now face long commutes.
The mandate, announced by County Executive Girmay Zahilay, directs departments to have eligible employees in the office a minimum of three days per week by June 1. Zahilay’s office estimates an upfront price tag of roughly $22 million to build out about 1,700 new workstations. Office roles account for about a quarter of the county’s roughly 19,000 employees, so the shift is set to touch multiple departments at once, according to KUOW.
Union leaders and rank-and-file workers say the planning has felt haphazard and inconsistent. Teamsters Local 117 has advised members in the Department of Natural Resources and Parks not to lock themselves into new telework agreements while details are still in flux. “These employees have built their lives around this, and they feel like they’ve been deceived or tricked,” said Cara Mattson, a Teamsters representative, in comments reported by KUOW.
Why Zahilay says bringing people back matters
Zahilay and his team argue that more time in the office will translate into better service and smoother operations. They say in-person work will help with collaboration, onboarding new staff, and just generally getting people on the same page. “I absolutely think that having more people in the office helps with camaraderie and productivity,” he told KOMO.
Union contracts and legal paths
Labor groups counter that the county’s own master contract already lays out how telework is supposed to work. The Coalition Labor Agreement includes telecommuting language that, according to union officials, allows employees to seek alternatives to blanket mandates and request accommodations under the ADA. PROTEC17 highlights that language as a key protection for members, while Teamsters Local 117 argues that appendix negotiations, not unilateral directives, are the proper forum to hash out hybrid schedules and space constraints. Those positions are detailed by PROTEC17 and Teamsters Local 117…