Tech News
A judge ordered federal agencies to stop terminating probationary workers, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be safe for long

Good morning!
Thousands of federal workers got their jobs back yesterday, a month after the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directed agencies to fire employees on probation.
The decision marks the latest roadblock to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s attempts to massively cull the federal workforce. And while many of these employees are celebrating the ability to return to work, the latest court ruling doesn’t mean they’re necessarily safe.
On Thursday, William H. Alsup, a district court judge in California, declared Trump’s decision to fire probationary employees illegal, noting that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), a kind of HR office for federal employees, doesn’t have the authority to hire and fire workers within other departments. He also took particular issue with the way they did it. Last month, the OPM sent a notice to all agencies requiring them to fire all workers on probationary status, along with a termination notice template telling employees they were being fired “based on performance.”
“It was a sham in order to try to avoid statutory requirements,” Alsup said on Thursday. He added that it was a “sad day when our government would fire some good employee, and say it was based on performance, when they know good and well that’s a lie.”
Employees who were terminated from the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, Energy, Defense, and Treasury will now have to be reinstated. The judge also forbade the OPM from providing additional guidance to agencies on which employees they should let go.
But these newly reinstated federal probationary employees aren’t out of the woods just yet. Reductions in force (also known as RIFs) are still legal for the government to carry out, as long as they’re “done correctly under the law,” Alsup said. “This case isn’t about whether or not the government can terminate people. It’s about if they decide to terminate people, how they must do it.”
The ruling also does not affect this week’s deadline set by the Trump administration requiring all agencies to send the president and the OPM plans for more layoffs. That means that more cuts are on the way.
In the meantime, however, federal worker unions across the country are rejoicing.“AFGE is pleased with Judge Alsup’s order to immediately reinstate tens of thousands of probationary federal employees who were illegally fired from their jobs by an administration hellbent on crippling federal agencies and their work on behalf of the American public,” said Everett Kelley, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees, a federal worker union.
“We are grateful for these employees and the critical work they do, and AFGE will keep fighting until all federal employees who were unjustly and illegally fired are given their jobs back.”
Brit Morse
brit.morse@fortune.com
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
UBS follows Deutsche Bank by banning staff from working remotely on both Friday and Monday

Swiss banking giant UBS has resisted following remote working hawks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, who’ve mandated a full return to office. It has, however, taken a leaf out of another rival’s approach.
In an internal memo circulated on Thursday, first reported by Finews, UBS told staff they would be required to work from the office at least three days a week. In addition, the bank told its 115,000 employees that they would no longer be able to work from home on a Friday followed by a consecutive Monday.
“Our working approach is office-centric with flexibility, and we ask our employees to be in the office at least three days a week. Spending enough time in the office with colleagues fosters innovation, collaboration, and team productivity,” a UBS spokesperson told Fortune.
The approach is similar to that of Deutsche Bank last year, which, in calling staff back to the office, drew a new line in the sand by banning remote Fridays and Mondays.
Many workers operating under a hybrid model opt to come into the office between Tuesday and Thursday, working their Mondays and Fridays remotely. Fridays in particular have proved popular among both bosses and employees as the remote day of choice.
The hawkish voices in the remote vs. in-office debate argue this trend has created a habit of lower productivity around the weekend as employees slow down into Saturday or ramp up more slowly to a Tuesday. Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe ordered his staff back to the office full-time in May last year when he realized email activity plunged on a Friday when most employees were remote.
One problem companies like UBS are more publicly happy to address is space. Many firms vacated office space during COVID-19 in order to cut costs when remote work looked like a permanent solution.
UBS is no different. In London, the company has consolidated staff at its Broadgate HQ, where it sublet space during the height of remote working, after it also chose not to renew its lease at 1 Golden Lane. During that time, the company also integrated employees from the newly acquired Credit Suisse into its offices, putting a further crunch on space. A move to choose between a Monday and Friday should regulate attendance through the week.
Companies have also been left frustrated by thousands of square meters of office space going unused on the more unpopular Mondays and Fridays.
UBS’s move to balance out office working across the week is understood to be a move to better manage its office space. Deutsche Bank gave the same reasoning last year, with CEO Christian Sewing saying the motivation was to “spread our presence more evenly across the week.”
The latest policy introduced by UBS remains much more liberal than the group’s competitors in the banking sector, most notably JPMorgan. The group mandated a full RTO mandate that began in March. Already, though, staff have complained about inadequate space, poor Wi-Fi, and unwell co-workers.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
Facebook ramps up TikTok battle by letting creators monetize their Stories

- Facebook has announced a new monetization program for creators. Facebook Content Monetization is meant to lure creators from TikTok as the company looks to build out its flagship social media property.
With the threat of a TikTok ban fading for now, Facebook is ramping up efforts to get creators to post their work on its platform.
The company has announced a new monetization program that will let creators make money simply by sharing photos and videos on the Facebook site. (Instagram has its own monetization program.)
Applications are being accepted at this website for the program’s beta. And at least one member of that beta program claims to have made $5,000 so far posting videos he would have normally posted without financial incentives.
Facebook has already sent invitations to one million creators to join the beta program, but is looking to expand it. Earnings will be based on engagement, total views, and plays. Public videos, reels, photos, and text posts are eligible to earn money.
Facebook has, for months, been trying to win the attention of creators. While Instagram has a healthy creator community, Meta’s flagship property has had trouble attracting them. In January, the company offered a $5,000 bonus to creators with an existing presence on other social platforms. TikTok remains the most popular destination for creators, but the lingering threat of that platform disappearing has made several of them diversify their outlets.
Over the course of the next year, the new Facebook Content Monetization program will replace Ads on Reels, In-Stream Ads and the Performance bonus programs. As part of the change, the company is streamlining its dashboard for creators to make it easier to see how their monetization efforts are going.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Tech News
Late rally not enough to save Wall Street from a fourth straight week of losing, the worst streak since an obscure Japanese trade sparked a global market meltdown

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are bouncing back Friday, but not by enough to keep Wall Street from heading toward a fourth straight losing week, which would be its longest such streak since August.
The S&P 500 was 1% higher in morning trading, a day after closing more than 10% below its record for its first “ correction ” since 2023. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 241 points, or 0.6%, as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% higher.
One piece of uncertainty hanging over Wall Street may be clearing after the Senate made moves to prevent a possible partial shutdown of the U.S. government. A deadline is looming at midnight for it.
Past shutdowns have not been a huge deal for financial markets, with investors pointing to how U.S. economic growth recovered after funding was restored. But any clearing of uncertainty can be helpful when so much of it has been sending the U.S. stock market on big, scary swings not just day to day but also hour to hour.
The heaviest uncertainty lies with President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war. There, the question is how much pain Trump will let the economy endure through tariffs and other policies in order to reshape the country and world as he wants. The president has said he wants manufacturing jobs back in the United States, along with a smaller U.S. government workforce and other fundamental changes.
U.S. households and businesses have already reported drops in confidence because of uncertainty about which tariffs will stick from Trump’s barrage of on -again, off -again announcements. That’s raised fears about a pullback in spending that could sap energy from the economy.
Worries look to be only worsening among U.S. households, according to a preliminary survey released Friday by the University of Michigan. Its measure of consumer sentiment sank for a third straight month, mostly because of concerns about the future rather than complaints about the present. The job market and overall economy look relatively solid at the moment.
“Many consumers cited the high level of uncertainty around policy and other economic factors,” according to Joanne Hsu, direct of the survey, and “frequent gyrations in economic policies make it very difficult for consumers to plan for the future, regardless of one’s policy preferences.”
Consumers are bracing for higher inflation in the future, with expectations for the long term jumping to 3.9% from last month’s prediction of 3.5%. That’s the biggest month-over-month jump since 1993.
Such fears have Wall Street focused on whether companies are seeing the sour mood of consumers translating into real pain for their businesses.
Ulta Beauty jumped 8.7% after the beauty products retailer reported stronger profit for the latest quarter. The company’s forecasts for upcoming revenue and profit fell short of analysts’ targets, but Chief Financial Officer Paula Oyibo said it wanted to be cautious “as we navigate ongoing consumer uncertainty.” Analysts said the forecasts appeared better than feared.
Gains for Big Tech stocks and companies in the artificial-intelligence industry also helped support the market. Such stocks have been under the most pressure in the recent sell-off after critics said their prices shot too high in the frenzy around AI.
Nvidia rose 3.1% to trim its loss for 2025 so far to 11.2%.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.
Stocks jumped 2.1% in Hong Kong and 1.8% in Shanghai after China’s National Financial Regulatory Administration issued a notice ordering financial institutions to help develop consumer finance and encourage use of credit cards, do more to aid borrowers who run into trouble, and be more transparent in their lending practices.
Economists say China needs consumers to spend more to get the economy out of its doldrums, although most have advocated broader, more fundamental reforms such as increasing wages, social welfare and support for public health and education.
In the bond market, Treasury yields rose to recover some of their sharp recent losses. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.29% from 4.27% late Thursday and from 4.16% at the start of last week.
Yields have been swinging since January, when they were approaching 4.80%. When worries worsen about the U.S. economy’s strength, yields have fallen. When those worries lessen, or when concerns about inflation rise, yields have climbed.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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