FTC Chairman says COVID-19 is over and hopes employees can return to offices full-time by March

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson He reportedly acknowledged employees were anxious about returning to the office full-time on Friday but said the pandemic was now over.

What happened: Ferguson told Reuters the pandemic was long over and workers needed to be at their desks.

Ferguson also reportedly said that virtual work “undermines the rich and unique culture that has long made the FTC one of the best places to work in the federal government.” He added that it would be difficult for new employees to interact with other employees in person rather than through By interacting through a computer screen, they will gain better control over their work.

Currently, about 80% of the agency’s employees work from home most of the week.

President Trump signed an executive order ordering federal workers to return to their offices after being sworn in on Monday. Citing an internal memo, Reuters reported that Ferguson expects FTC staff to return to full-time work by March 3.

Why it’s important: billionaire MuskTrump, who currently heads Trump’s Department of Administration Effectiveness, has previously said that voluntary terminations due to the requirement to return to the office would be “welcome.”

“Requiring federal employees to come into the office five days a week will result in a wave of voluntary layoffs, and we welcome it: American taxpayers should not be paying for the privileges they enjoy in the coronavirus era if federal employees don’t want to show up. Stay At home,” Musk wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed co-written with Vivek Ramaswamy and published in November.

However, employees resigning over demands to return to the office could impact the agency and the chairman’s goals in filing lawsuits against several employees, including meta platform and amazon.com.

After Trump appointed Ferguson as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission in December, Ferguson pledged to “end Big Tech’s hatred of competition and free speech.”

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