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Employee Wellness
Twitter tells employees to work from home in effort to combat coronavirus
By Talent Canada Staff
Photo: Samara Heisz/Getty Images Twitter is asking all of its employees to stay home — “if they’re able” — to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. And it’s mandating work-from-home for workers in some higher-risk areas.
“We are operating out of an abundance of caution and the utmost decision to keeping our Tweeps healthy,” the company wrote in blog posted by @JenChristieHR.
The company is attempting to ensure internal meetings and other important tasks are optimized for remote participation,
“We recognize that working from home is not ideal for some job functions,” the post said. “For those employees who prefer or need to come into the offices, they will remain open for business. Our Real Estate & Workplace team is increasing deep cleaning and sanitizing in all spaces, as well as more visual reminders for personal hygiene best practices and pre-packaged, pre-composed, and pre-plated food options.”
Mandatory for some employees
Working from home will be mandatory for employees based in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea due in part to government restrictions, Twitter said.
“Our criteria will evolve over time as we get more information, and we will communicate to affected Tweeps as appropriate.”
The company acknowledged it was a “big change” — but pointed out it has 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,” it said.
Travel suspended
Last week, Twitter announced it was suspending “all non-critical business travel and events.”
The policy is expected to remain in place until either a vaccine is available or the World Health Organization or the Centers for Disease Control “deem it appropriate to step back from pandemic precautionary measures.”
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