Google asks staff in North America to work from home

Google asks all of its North-American employees to work from home (WFH), due to COVID-19 – coronavirus – outbreak, if their workload and situation allow it. The company extended the permission, through a memo, until April 10.

Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter have also encouraged their employees to work from home.

Chris Rackow, Google’s Vice President of Global Security, said in a memo via email that “The goal of businesses moving to work-from-home arrangements is to significantly reduce the density of people and lower health risk in offices.” 

The email further states: “Out of an abundance of caution, and for the protection of Alphabet and the broader community, we now recommend you work from home (WFH) if your role allows.” 

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The search engine giant has asked its employees all over the world, including 11 offices in the United States and Canada, to direct from home. The company has told its employees in San Francisco Bay Area and New York to work from home and changed voluntary work-from-home status to recommended.

“The goal of businesses moving to work from home (WFH) arrangements is to significantly reduce the density of people and lower the health risk in offices, and also reduce the burden on the local community and health resourced, enabling those in need to get quicker support,” the Google further notify its employees.

The CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, has also asked for a contribution to social distancing to help the overall community. 

With the flow of work from home, Google says that the company is carefully monitoring the situation and will update the timeline as necessary.

Google I/O and COVID-19 Fund

The majority of industrial conferences are canceling to evade the spread of Coronavirus COVID-19. Earlier, Google has also withdrawn its most significant event of Annual Developer Conference Google I/O. The event was scheduled for 12-14 May 2020 at Google’s Mountainview headquarters. 

“Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities, we have decided to cancel the physical Google I/O event.” a spokesperson said in his statement. 

The offices will, however, remain open for the employees in case their physical appearance is mandatory for their job, for meetings or if group work is extremely needed. 

Google has a supporting commitment done with its employees to compensate them for the time they would have worked. The company ensures that its workforce will have all the support that they need. With that, they made an additional commitment for its extended workforce around the globe to have the paid sick leave benefits. 

The tech giant behind Google Maps, Cloud, Android and Chrome has also announced the establishment of a COVID-19 fund for workers across the world. “Google is establishing a COVID-19 fund that will enable all our temporary staff and vendors, globally, to take paid sick leave if they have potential symptoms of COVID-19, or can’t come into work because they are quarantined,” Adrienne Crowther, Director of Google’s Workplace Services, said in the official blog post today. 

Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and other companies encouraging remote work

Besides Google, Walmart, McDonald’s, and Olive Garden are also giving COVID-19 paid sick leaves concerning their health and livelihood.

In the fray of work from home, Apple, on Sunday, has also encouraged its employees to work remotely from March 9 to 13.  

Last week Twitter has also actively encouraged its 5000 employees all over the world, mandatory for Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea staff to work remotely.

Microsoft, Box, and Lyft are also recommending their employees to work from home (WFH) and are also maintaining their wages despite reduced hours. 

Featured image: Brian Chisholm/Google