The coronavirus has put the global economy on the brink of crisis, maybe the most serious one in the last century. Hopes for a quick recovery of the planet are melting away every day, and the bill for treatment is growing in front of our eyes. The virus has already cost the world corporations tens of billions of dollars, and this is only the beginning.
Big corporations throughout the world are encouraging their employees to work from home as the new pandemy continues to spread.
Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Yandex and most large banks have switched to remote working policies concerning all of their workers around the world.
Twitter has decided to implement working from home as mandatory for all employees, after their San Francisco office has been closed due to an employee showing similar to coronavirus symptoms. Twitter has announced it will pay the employees as usual, for all the normal working hours. This refers to hourly employees, who are not able to go to work or work from home.
Google asked all employees in Europe, the Middle East, North America and Africa to work from home through April 10. The management has also announced the company will compensate employees affected by the quarantine, such as cafe workers, for all of the hours they couldn’t work because of the pandemy.
Facebook is constantly releasing work from home information to all employees, asking those who can to do so through April 10.
Amazon is recommending that all workers stay at home and work from there. It is continuously paying their hourly workers (around 10,000 cafes, cleaning, security and other hourly staff). The company is also offering more sick leave time for workers who get infected with the new virus.
Yandex recommended that employees work remotely. They told employees they can come to the office, but the company advises against using public transport. Taxi and car sharing are promised to be reimbursed.
Quarantine and work from home is one of the most popular measures to prevent the spreading of coronavirus. As you see, they are especially popular in the IT sector.
Other companies and organizations are also preparing employees for remote work. Many large businesses advised employees to take work laptops home after work so that they could work remotely, if necessary.
The coronavirus pandemic has created an anxious and fast adaptation to remote work at a global scale. How will the companies exist and survive during the next months might give us a perspective on what awaits us in the far future.
Many businesses have to learn now, fast and quickly, that work from home is quite different. Managing staff has to try harder in order to succeed at judging employee productivity and reaching the set tasks without talking to people face to face.
Workers, on the other hand, have to adapt to a new division of working hours, to learn how to focus on work, when to end the working day, and how to remain family involved. Now, they must develop new habits, so that every member of the team knows what has been done and what has to be done.
Many directors will also have to learn new things, such as setting up video conferences instead of meetings, controlling the working process and optimize the company activity remotely.
If this would have been the companies’ initiative, the things would have developed much more simply and calmly, because there would have been time for trainings, testing and reorganization.
Unfortunately, this is the time when businesses are forced to set up the only kind of activity that could function in the actual pandemic situation, and even take advantage of it in the near future, when most employees might work out of the office.
What about us? Well, all Bizonaire employees are also currently working remotely! We advise you to do the same, if your job gives you that opportunity!
Stay home and be healthy!
