Nova Scotia government employees who have been allowed to work from home for the past four years are being told they must return to the office full time starting Oct. 15.

The news has sent shock waves through the bureaucracy, especially among the 3,500 non-union employees who have reworked their lives around the flexible, albeit unwritten work arrangement. Some were working as many as three days a week from home.

CBC News has received emails from some of those workers who said the government has …