Google is recommending its North America staff to work from home
Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and other tech giants have also encouraged their employees to work from home amid the coronavirus outbreak.
- Google has advised its employees in North America to work from their homes due to coronavirus concerns.
- The search giant had previously instructed employees at its offices in Dublin, Seattle, and the San Francisco Bay Area to work remotely.
- Several other tech giants, including Apple and Microsoft have also closed their offices temporarily and asked employees to work from home.
With an aim to limit the spread of the novel COVID-19 virus, Google recently canceled all large gatherings and nonessential employee travel. Its also encouraged its employees in its Washington State and California offices to work remotely. To safeguard its employees from the growing coronavirus outbreak, the search giant is now recommending all of its workers in North America to work from home until April 10.
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). Please contribute if you are able to https://t.co/RNUh2kSyIJ
- Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) March 10, 2020
As noted by Business Insider, the majority of the search giant's 100,000-plus employees worldwide are based in North America. However, the company's offices across North America will still remain open for employees who can do their work only from the office. Fortunately, no Google employee in North America has been confirmed to have caught the virus yet.
Just like several other large tech companies, Google has also announced that it will continue to compensate hourly contract workers, whose work hours will be reduced due to the decision. Additionally, a fund has been created to pay sick leave for contract workers who cannot come to work.
Coronavirus and tech: Ongoing list of event cancellations, disruptions, product delays, and more