By Jody Godoy
(Reuters) – The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission on Friday acknowledged staff concerns about returning to full-time office work at an agency where about 80% work from home most weeks, but said the COVID pandemic was long over and workers they must be at their desks.
In one of his earliest executive orders, President Donald Trump ordered federal workers back to the office. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who noted that Trump fulfilled a campaign promise with the order, expects staff to return to full-time work by March 3, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
The overall effect of the back-to-work orders and other changes is expected to drive frustrated government employees out of their jobs, a goal Trump’s team is explicitly pursuing to help streamline the government by cutting staff, eliminating regulations and cutting budgets.
Tesla (NASDAQ: ) CEO Elon Musk — who chairs Trump’s Government Efficiency Initiative — predicted that ending the “Covid-era privilege” of remote work would trigger a “wave of voluntary layoffs that we welcome.”
Musk, a major Trump donor, ordered Tesla employees to be in the office 40 hours a week in 2022 or leave the company. Other US industries, including Wall Street banks, have taken a similar approach to returning to the office.
In addition to noting that the pandemic is over, Ferguson said telecommuting has “undermined the rich and unique culture that has long made the FTC one of the best places to work in the federal government.
“I can say from experience that it is very difficult for a new hire to learn the ropes when most of his or her interactions are with faces on computer screens, rather than face-to-face conversations with veterans and mentors,” he added.
But 79% of FTC staff worked from home three or four days a week in 2023, compared with 47% at mid-sized agencies across the government and 23% across the government, suggesting they could lose more staff if they decide to give dismissal over mandate.
The consumer protection and competition enforcement agency has a big job in the coming years with a full list of lawsuits against big companies including Amazon (NASDAQ: ), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: ) and PepsiCo (NASDAQ: ).
At the same time, when Trump picked him to lead the agency, Ferguson promised to “end Big Tech’s vendetta against competition and free speech.”
If staff leave while the cases are pending and Ferguson accelerates his plan, it will significantly affect the agency’s ability to function, said former FTC attorney David Schwartz, now a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner.
“The armchair priorities will be the ones that will suffer. Those are the ones that require the most work, because you’re starting from the beginning,” he said.
Ferguson’s letter said the agency would abide by reasonable accommodations previously granted to employees, as well as collective bargaining obligations for staff who voted to unionize in September. He acknowledged that staff with telecommuting arrangements may “face unique difficulties”.
“We are working hard to determine how we can best address these difficulties while achieving full compliance with the PM (Presidential Memorandum). Finally, we are developing a procedure whereby the agency will consider requests for waivers from the PM in exceptional circumstances,” he said. is.
