Google asks tens of thousands of U.S. workers to stay home amid coronavirus fears.
Google asks tens of thousands of U.S. workers to stay home amid coronavirus fears
As concern about the coronavirus continues to build, many workplaces are encouraging people to work remotely to prevent it from spreading further. Now, in one of the biggest such moves yet, Google has asked all its employees in the U.S. and Canada to work from home for at least a month.
The new policy was announced in a memo to workers on Tuesday, and confirmed by a Google spokesperson to Business Insider. Those who are able to work remotely have been told to do so for an entire month, staying away from Google's offices until at least April 10.
Google has also recommended that employees in Europe work from home, and issued advice to its international offices depending upon the local situation. Google has numerous offices around the globe, however, some 100,000 of its workers are based in North America, according to CNBC.
"Contributing to social distancing if you are able to, helps the overall community spread and most importantly, will help offset the peak loads through critical healthcare systems and also saves it for people in need. (based on expert advice)," tweeted Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday. "Please contribute if you are able to."
Of course, not everyone is able. Those unable to work remotely will still be able to go to Google's offices, which will remain open. In a blog post published on March 6, Pichar noted that affected hourly service workers would be compensated for time they otherwise would have worked. Mashable contacted Google for further clarification on the new policy, and will update if it responds.
According to the World Health Organisation, the global count of confirmed COVID-19 cases is currently at 113,851, with 4,015 fatalities. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. The U.S. has 472 reported cases and 19 deaths, while Canada has 77 cases.
UPDATE: March 11, 2020, 11:30 a.m. AEDT A Google spokesperson has since provided the following statement to Mashable: "We can confirm that all offices in North America are now on recommended work from home status, if roles allow. Also today, we’ve made an additional commitment on sick leave: a COVID-19 fund for members of our extended workforce."
The spokesperson also stated that working from home was previously optional for workers in New York and California, and recommended for workers in Washington.
I don’t think that’s the issue at hand at this point. Government need to announce that everyone should stay home. China made the mistake announcing too late. Now US telling us to go on and live our lives. Google took matter into their own hand and told their employees to stay home already.
ReplyDeletethey’re working away from home and at Google, that’s possible. It’s a tech company that deals with computers so it’s very easy to do.
DeleteIf it were a company where you couldn’t work from home, would things be different? Who knows.
So, will they keep full salary, half salary or no salary to ask them all stay home for the entire month? What if after one month, they figure out they don't need anymore employees to run the entire company and cut jobs by 20%, 50%, or 80%? Just wondering...
ReplyDeleteLin why VPN? Whata bs
DeleteThat's GREAT... Let's see how long it will last because the latest reports show many large corporations in many industries are planning to cut 15% to 30% costs in every way in the next 6 months.
Deleteit true, once you work from home, we will cut your salary cause no more transportation cost, no more sick leave, no more annual leave, no more overtime. No more rental of office, company will have a name with no address.
Deletegoogle doesn’t pay overtime, plus from I heard from my Google friends, it was basically the same, except no free food. But not having the 2 hour commute is great.
DeleteTO those who work at Google / Apple / Microsoft / Facebook... I suppose you all know WHO / WHAT is behind all these companies, right? DS = D e e p States / C a b a l / E l i t e s ... Thank god. TRUMP is draining the swamp in all industries worldwide right now.
Deleteexactly, we will save a lot of unnecessary cost, no toilet break, no refreshment, no incident, so it a brave new world.
DeleteQ said over 12000 CEO resignations worldwide already. Research online
Deleteyou’re joking, right?
Deleteit’s work from home...amazon employees have been WFH for a week now
Deleteyou guys remember the commercial tariff, this could be the retaliation for it, what we see is the beginning of the Technology new era, many corporation will hired you and make work at home "attractive" but in reality corporations will save billions in rent or build large facilities, pay utilities etc, etc and the implementation of the AI (artificial intelligence) will be more commun and accepted for us, will be like the industrial revolution in the 40s.
DeleteTime will Tell... Just Wait for It...
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ReplyDeleteThey told me not to come in, because I have a cold and people were freaking out. However after asking about working from home they went radio silent... this stinks and this is coming off my PTO as we don't have paid sick days and under normal circumstances we are actually told TO COME TO WORK SICK.
ReplyDeleteI work in a private practice therapy and psychiatrist office in NJ and we are moving to online sessions starting on Monday.
ReplyDeleteYes. I’m fortunate to have a job that can be done remotely.
ReplyDeleteNope as I cant take the horses home. Not every job can you work from home.
ReplyDeleteNo, because @robertsmith, owner of Vista Equity, likes his people to work to death
ReplyDeleteThat's all and good if you have a job that you can work from home.
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ReplyDelete@Veronnica did you actually read the article Veronnica??? Staff have been asked to WORK from home. They will be paid.
ReplyDeleteYes
ReplyDeleteNope!
ReplyDeleteSo, Google employees will get paid for the month. Lucky them. How about elsewhere, the feds? A lot of folks are living pay check to pay check, otherwise they are BROKE
ReplyDelete