SerpApi.Org
It’s a place where California state workers go to let off steam. It’s a venue for people to get application advice while seeking a state job. And it’s a platform where some of the state’s employees go to share their latest conspiracies about the real reason Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his return-to-office order.
The California state worker Reddit page, found at r/CAStateWorkers, has long served as the online water cooler for the thousands of public servants across the state. Historically, users have used the social media site to help one another navigate the dense bureaucracy of the state government that employs them.
But in recent years, the informal community has become more active - and, at times, more divisive.
That change came in response to the governor’s unpopular return-to-office orders, according to one of the site’s moderators whose job it is to maintain decorum by enforcing the forum’s rules such as “No Politics other than what is related to state employment” and “No fear mongering the unknown.”
On the state worker “subreddit,” individuals can make posts, which other users can reply to and either “upvote” or “downvote,” which helps determine which items are seen at the top of the page. There are more than 138,000 active subreddits on the platform, according to the data analytics firm DemandSage, each focusing on a unique community or topic.
The California state worker forum is particularly active. As of this week, the subreddit had roughly 72,000 visitors and over 9,000 contributors to the forum.
The moderator, who is also a state worker and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of concerns over retaliation from his employer and the Reddit community, said there has been an increase in misinformation on the subreddit since Newsom issued his first return-to-office order in 2024. Some of the speculation comes from state workers who are unhappy with the governor’s decision, the moderator said, but the subreddit’s activity also attracts outside agitators who are obviously not government employees.
The change has coincided with more distrust of the page’s administrators who are tasked with maintaining a productive and civil dialogue on the site.
“There’s still that air of conspiracy that we’re trying to control a narrative,” he said.
One redditor’s recent post on the forum captured some of the divisiveness: After “lurking on this subreddit for several years, it’s crazy how much my perspective has shifted. Not because I suddenly think RTO is better, but because the constant complaining here seems to reinforce many of the arguments in favor of it.”
Not too long after that user posted the comment, they deleted it.
Speculation about why the governor called employees back to offices range from the idea that downtown business owners are supporting Newsom’s yet-to-be announced presidential bid, to the prediction that Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis’s real estate holdings in Sacramento will benefit from the return of state workers.
Newsom has maintained that he wanted employees back in offices to improve collaboration - though few state workers online believe that rationale.
Despite the conspiracies and complaints, several state workers reported that the forum is extremely helpful for sharing information and getting professional advice. The forum remains a place where prospective employees can get their application questions answered and where a community of workers can fight for better working conditions.
‘Indispensable for the organizing effort’
At its most productive, the state workers subreddit has been used to organize protests and advocate for legislation. This has been most apparent in state workers’ collective opposition to Newsom’s RTO mandate, which requires eligible employees work in person four days a week.
The page has acted as a communal space for updates and calls to action on the issue. For example, several users have posted regular updates on a bill before the Legislature that aims to create more telework protections for state workers. Those posts have often included information for state employees on how to testify in support of the bill, which hundreds of workers have done at legislative hearings over the past year.
One state employee, who led the effort to fund and put up a billboard on Interstate-80 protesting the RTO order earlier this year, said that the subreddit was “indispensable for the organizing effort.”
“I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it without that subreddit being available,” said the employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fears of professional repercussions.
The issue of return-to-office was so animating to many state workers that the group of anonymous employees was able to raise $9,000 and put up the billboard in less than three weeks, all through the subreddit.
The downside of that level of engagement, the organizer noted, was that there are too many posts related to the return-to-office order.
“A lot of times the information or the viewpoints are not necessarily new or novel and so there’s a lot of what is called ‘low engagement posts,’” she said.
The moderator said that in a perfect world the administrators would take steps to focus the subreddit and remove repetitive discussions, but he doesn’t have the time to moderate that closely.
“For every 10 posts about RTO, I would say that there’s probably at least one that’s perfectly valid, interesting, relevant,” he said.
‘Don’t give up’
Prior to the transformation of the state worker subreddit into a telework-obsessed forum, the page was a “very constructive space” where topics like policy interpretations or contract discussions dominated, the moderator said.
The subreddit was also a key resource for people like Mark Haapala who wanted a government job and used the community to learn how to navigate the state’s complex hiring process.
Haapala worked for roughly two decades as a producer and writer in the entertainment industry, but last year he started looking for a position with the state to secure a job with more stability. But month after month, Haapala submitted applications that didn’t seem to go anywhere.
“I started applying for state work, and it’s like I can’t even get an interview for an office tech job,” he said. “I was really under the false pretense that as soon as I started applying, I was going to get a job.”
Haapala came to rely on the state worker subreddit, reading posts from others in similar situations to look for advice on how to improve his application. After roughly 200 applications, five interviews and six months of applying, Haapala finally secured a job with the California Air Resources Board this past spring.
“It gets really discouraging. You start questioning your own worth,” Haapala said of the state’s application process. But his message for others on the subreddit looking for a state job: “Don’t give up.”
For the moderator - who has become a bit disillusioned by the transformation of the subreddit - posts like Haapala’s, celebrating their job offer on the subreddit, are a beacon of light.
“As much as negativity and conspiratorial thinking that’s going on around RTO, at the end of the day there’s still people that earnestly want these jobs and are going to be happy with these jobs that are going to improve their lives,” the moderator said.
