A Beatrice woman, Rebecca Ward-Pettit, felt compelled to resign from her position at the Nebraska Department of Revenue following Governor Jim Pillen’s executive order mandating state employees to return to in-person work.
Ward-Pettit, who had been a business collections agent for eight years, was on maternity leave when she learned about the order, which took her by surprise.
KLKN TV reported that Ward-Pettit had inquired about the possibility of ending remote work during her pregnancy and before her maternity leave but was told there were no such plans.
“I had asked previously – when I had first found out I was pregnant and again before taking maternity leave – whether or not there had been talk about ending remote working, and I was told no,” she said in an exclusive interview with KLKN.
The shift to remote work during the pandemic had increased her productivity, she said, citing fewer distractions at home and the benefit of no commute from Beatrice, where she lives with her husband and son.