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Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

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Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#21

Post by rurounijones »

daniel_iversen wrote: post #17

Dropbox is too[1] and what I like about this is that their main motive (I think, based on the kind of person I’ve seen Drew being) isn’t just not their employees getting sick, or it spreading inside Dropbox, but also to make their tiny contribution to it spreading less in the world in general. And in the article it mentions it’s only in Seattle that these other companies are instituting work from home, and it seems l…

I work in a Japanese office of one of these companies and we have been able to work from home since January due to COVID-19 based on our own risk assessment, with advisories being sent via internal email.

So this article is wrong/misleading at least in that respect, probably because if is focused on the US.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#22

Post by inferiorhuman »

BigBubbleButt wrote: post #9
freepor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this works well I will eat my hat. This represents: companies with no remote-work culture (thus systems that are not fully documented, etc.), forcing employees into this suddenly (so they will not have a proper space at home set up for this... some of them will be in the same room as a crying baby), while their spouse may also be working from home due to the virus, while everyone is also thinking about getting a d…

> while everyone is also thinking about getting a deadly virus every time they leave the house Am I the only person who isn't worried about the coronavirus? I'm not exaggerating when I say it hasn't effected my life at all, except for the effort it took me to write this comment. I live in San Francisco, if it matters.

I'm not exaggerating when I say it hasn't effected my life at all, except for the effort it took me to write this comment. I live in San Francisco, if it matters.

San Francisco just reported its first cases today, but there's definitely been panic shopping. The city closed down Lowell today as a precautionary measure (but that leaves nearly 200 campuses open).

Even if you don't suffer any health or financial effects (unlikely) you'll still be effected if:

- More schools close, even more if parents have to take time off from work en masse

- Public transit becomes a big vector and BART or Muni try to shut down or reduce service

- People continue to panic shop. NPR had a photo from a Marin Target with shelves bare of disinfectant wipes. Rainbow in the city was almost completely out of canned tomatoes on Monday.

- On a federal level, if our idiot president succeeds in closing the Mexican border you'll definitely feel some pain

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#23

Post by yadongwen »

mlang23 wrote: post #19
Gigablah wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to be rude towards the organizers of your music festival.

Either I didnt parse your sarcasm, or you didn't parse mine. I am happy for the festival not being canceled, and I think italy is way overreacting.

Well your action will likely make the virus spreading faster which may cause someone to be killed.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#24

Post by mlang23 »

kilroy_jones wrote: post #20
mlang23 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you are not alone. I dont care about Coronavirus at all. I dont feel threatened personally, and I consider the media hype completely overblown. There are still a few of us that dont behave like sissies.

Pretty bad attitude to have considering how your carelessness can adversely affect many others.

[flagged]

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#25

Post by cm2187 »

BigBubbleButt wrote: post #9
freepor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this works well I will eat my hat. This represents: companies with no remote-work culture (thus systems that are not fully documented, etc.), forcing employees into this suddenly (so they will not have a proper space at home set up for this... some of them will be in the same room as a crying baby), while their spouse may also be working from home due to the virus, while everyone is also thinking about getting a d…

> while everyone is also thinking about getting a deadly virus every time they leave the house Am I the only person who isn't worried about the coronavirus? I'm not exaggerating when I say it hasn't effected my life at all, except for the effort it took me to write this comment. I live in San Francisco, if it matters.

I am not either. I see a disconnect between the numbers published by the WHO and the alarmist reaction of the mainstream media. Earlier this week there was a speech from the director of the WHO on the front page of hn suggesting the virus was less contagious than the flu, I don’t see any mention in any major newspapers. It feels like one of these “facts that don’t fit the narrative will be simply omitted”.

I am concerned however about the overreaction to the virus. Like I am not concerned about catching it, but I am having second thoughts about a holiday trip in south Asia I wanted to make next month as I don’t want to find myself jailed for weeks in a military barrack for some unnecessary quarantine. And my biggest concern is the economic impact.

Hopefully this thing will go away in 2/3 months as the northern hemisphere gets warmer.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#26

Post by mlang23 »

yadongwen wrote: post #23
mlang23 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either I didnt parse your sarcasm, or you didn't parse mine. I am happy for the festival not being canceled, and I think italy is way overreacting.

Well your action will likely make the virus spreading faster which may cause someone to be killed.

People die on a daily basis, especially elderly ones. Sorry, but I am not buying this hype.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#27

Post by 0x8BADF00D »

kilroy_jones wrote: post #20
mlang23 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you are not alone. I dont care about Coronavirus at all. I dont feel threatened personally, and I consider the media hype completely overblown. There are still a few of us that dont behave like sissies.

Pretty bad attitude to have considering how your carelessness can adversely affect many others.

If you need to be told to wash your hands and shower, that’s a you problem, not a me problem. This is basic hygiene.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#28

Post by draven »

strstr wrote: post #4

This is a massive accidental experiment on the effectiveness of fully remote teams. Most of these companies are fairly reticent to have even a few workers remote, let alone entire teams/orgs. It'll be interesting to see if teams push for something closer to full remote wherever it worked well (or if some employees will want it, having not realized what it was like). Plausibly teams that it works well for will have gr…

We have a few remote employees in the company I work for (I'm one of them), there are still some things we could do better, but it works well. When there were strikes and it got difficult for people to go to the office, many worked remotely. It worked well since we already had the tools and processes in place, and some colleagues who were skeptical about being able to work remotely discovered they liked it.

In companies with no remote workers and with no tooling/processes in place, it could backfire.

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#29

Post by strstr »

mlang23 wrote: post #18
BigBubbleButt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> while everyone is also thinking about getting a deadly virus every time they leave the house Am I the only person who isn't worried about the coronavirus? I'm not exaggerating when I say it hasn't effected my life at all, except for the effort it took me to write this comment. I live in San Francisco, if it matters.

No, you are not alone. I dont care about Coronavirus at all. I dont feel threatened personally, and I consider the media hype completely overblown. There are still a few of us that dont behave like sissies.

Huh? I’m pretty confused by this attitude. This seems pretty callous.

Obviously, media hype train is in full swing, but this is fairly infectious and fairly dangerous for those over 80 and those with other risk factors. That’s narrow, but it is not nothing.

Personal risk is pretty low for me (at my age/health status), but I’m still not super interested in getting knocked on my ass for a week. Particularly since coronavirus immunity is not believed to last for a particularly long period if time. I definitely don’t want it twice!

Re: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are asking staff to work from home

#30

Post by mlang23 »

0x8BADF00D wrote: post #27
kilroy_jones wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty bad attitude to have considering how your carelessness can adversely affect many others.

If you need to be told to wash your hands and shower, that’s a you problem, not a me problem. This is basic hygiene.

Thanks I couldn't have said it any better.
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