Twitter Staff To Work From Home To Prevent Coronavirus Spread

Tech Giant Twitter has given its employees the option of working at home as a way of preventing further spread of the deadly Coronavirus.

Making the announcement through a blog post on Monday, March 2, 2020, Twitter “strongly encouraged” its employees to consider working remotely as it would prevent them from contracting the contagious virus.

“Beginning today, we are strongly encouraging all employees globally to work from home if they’re able,” the Twitter blog post said.

The Twitter employees from South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong are however not given an option as the firm announced that it was mandatory for them to work from home.

According to Twitter’s head of Human Resource Jennifer Christie, “Twitter’s goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus for us – and the world around us.”

Twitter’s blog post also highlighted the company’s previous efforts to allow its employees to work in the comfort of their homes without having to physically report to their places of work.

“While this is a big change for us, we have already been moving towards a more distributed workforce that’s increasingly remote. We’re a global service and we’re committed to enabling anyone, anywhere to work at Twitter.”

Following this announcement, Twitter now becomes the first major U.S. Corporation to advise its staff to work from home.

The social media company had also canceled its non-essential businesses and events trips with the latest one being the Southwest media conference in Austin, Texas which was scheduled for March this year.

Other tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple have announced cancellation or postponement of trips to Coronavirus hit countries. The companies have either closed their businesses in China or have advised their employees to temporarily work from home.

Google also asked all its 8000 employees who work at the Dublin Offices in Ireland to work from home from Tuesday, March 3, 2020, after reports revealed that there was a possible cause of the virus in the Company’s offices.

“We continue to take precautionary measures to protect the health and safety of our workforce. In accordance with the advice of medical experts, and as part of that effort we have asked our Dublin teams to work from home tomorrow.” a Google spokesperson said in an email.

The reports come even after the Coronavirus outbreak continues to spread and kill thousands of people. The pandemic is now literally killing businesses and sporting events.