An Agency in Crisis: Employee Satisfaction at the FTC Continues to Decline

Abstract

After the stunning decline in the FTC staff’s views of senior leadership in 2021—nearly the largest decline of any federal agency in a decade—satisfaction with senior leadership fell again in 2022, while views of FTC supervisory leadership once again improved. The agency appears to be in crisis with many FTC staff leaving the agency due the dysfunctional leadership style of its chairman. In 2020, senior leadership at the agency ranked first in staff’s view of the honesty and integrity of senior leadership and their respect for that leadership. In 2021, and again in 2022, FTC staff’s views on the honesty and integrity of senior leadership and respect for that leadership declined precipitously, placing the agency in last place on these attributes among its peers—an unprecedented decline.

Keywords: FTC, Federal Trade Commission, Employee Satisfaction, Lina Kahn

JEL Classification: K21, J45