Google Recommends All Employees in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa To Work From Home Because of Coronavirus (businessinsider.com) 62
Google is stepping up its measures against the coronavirus outbreak. From a report: The tech giant will recommend that its workers across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa work from home starting on Thursday March 12, Business Insider has learned. This comes a week after Google advised US workers in its Washington state and California offices to work from home, as well as those in its 8,000-strong Dublin office in Ireland. Google then widened that to all 11 of its offices in North America. Google has around 100,000 employees in total, most of whom are based in North America. Google has yet to report any confirmed cases of the virus in its US staff, but a worker in its Zurich office tested positive at the end of February. A Dublin worker also reported flu-like symptoms, but tested negative for COVID-19. The tech giant also announced last week that it was suspending in-person job interviews.
Re:Must be nice to be as selfish as the google (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what you take from that? Sure, some people can't work remotely, but for those who can, it means less people moving around and lowering the total population that can become infected and then infect others. It's even a recommendation of the WHO. How is that a bad thing?
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I understand your lack of imagination. You're just some Slashdot identity.
But don't you think the almighty google should be able to come up with some sort of more constructive solution approach?
No, I don't have a great idea, but obviously I'm not smart enough to work at the google. I really think we're in a batten-the-hatches situation. China basically shut down everything and just focused on pumping enough food into Wuhan to keep MILLIONS of quarantined people from starving. China could do that and may hav
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I get that many people can't work from home - I can't, I literally stopped working yesterday and told the company I'll start again when they get their act together. I could have been a major spreader of the disease if I kept working, companies I visit already have cases.
But I don't see why Google shouldn't ask people who can work from home to do so - that's exactly the right thing to do, what would you expect them to do? (I don't like the slimy fuckrs by the way).
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To a degree I was just venting, but perhaps my real anger is at Slashdot? Trying to make the google look good for doing the bare and obvious minimum--and at no real cost to the google, to boot.
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The March Grand Sumo tournament is going on at the moment. The wrestlers and the supporting staff are there but no spectators. Seems like a reasonable compromise, the venue is losing a lot of money due to lack of spectators but at least the other revenue streams (e.g. TV rights) are there and the danger is minimal for the staff they do have on site.
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No, I don't have a great idea, but obviously I'm not smart enough to work at the google.
So, your argument is that someone at a company full of software developers should be smart enough to find a solution that no one else in the world, including the world's smarted doctors, epidemiologists, etc., has been able to find, and that Google is selfish because they aren't sharing this supposed solution?
Really?
As one of Google's "smart people", I'll happily tell you I'm certainly not that smart, nor is anyone I work with. If you'd like to talk about something in our field of expertise, we're smar
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Apologies if I didn't give your comment as much attention as it deserved. You shouldn't start out with the self-deprecating lies. Or perhaps you could have started by explaining why all the publicity about the smart people at the google is just another crock of lies. Like the google ads.
Or maybe you have no actual connection to the google, and you're just playing some kind of reverse-spin head game trying to make the google look even worse.
Will rehashing my point make it more clear or persuasive? I did get
Re: Must be nice to be as selfish as the google (Score:2)
Do you have kids? Any of them under 12? The kids have nearly no reactions despite having the virus. Work from home, or quarantine yourself. Then drop your kid off at daycare or school. With a 10-14 day incubation its likely already in your home. These measures work better for the flu with 3-4 day incubation.
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And why should we risk our lives to produce food for the little googlers to eat?
Reducing the number of people moving around in public would reduce the amount of contact for those who can't work from home.
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How is Google being selfish by taking WHO recommendations for its employees?
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1) a disease starts what's called a "pandemic".
2) google decides to allow workers to work from home, in order to help stifle the spread of said disease.
3) google is accused of 'ignoring the problem'.
There's something I'm missing between 2 & 3. Can you elaborate? Because what you're saying is COMPLETELY absurd and trollish.
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No, I'm not trying to trigger the wannabe googles. Any other question?
Or let me know when you actually understand anything I wrote.
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Congratulations. This is the dumbest comment I've ever seen on Slashdot, and I've been here for 20+ years.
Would you call people who get vaccinations selfish because there are people who are unable to get them due to allergy or other medical conditions? No, right? This is no conceptually different. People who are capable of working from home, but continue to go into work, unnecessarily increase the probability of spreading the virus. That right there, would actually selfish, as it does not consider the i
Stupid comment contest (Score:2)
You beat me. Congrats.
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Work from home! Adjust all work to be from home. (Score:2)
How can that become the normal way of doing things?
Obviously, manufacturing will need to become more robotic. Many jobs now require humans to do some work.
You're on /. right now (Score:2)
People barely do any work when at work. They're all on Facebook, Reddit, Imgur, and Slashdot. Now you're asking them to "work" from home. Good luck!
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I've been working from home since last year and find I'm super productive. I post on Slashdot and feed the cat and stuff but I also get more work done overall. Fewer distractions, if I have an idea at 7 PM on a Sunday I can go work on it for an hour or two then and there, I control the thermostat and arrange my office the way I like it... The main is I just work the way I work best, not the way the company wants everyone to work.
The better companies give employees that freedom at work anyway. My current one
COVID-19... the political virus? (Score:1)
Has anyone noticed that the response to COVID-19 outbreaks seems to fall on political objectives instead of actual health guidelines? If you're working for Google or going an urban hipster conference like SXSW, you already got shut down. If you're going to a NASCAR event or work for oil company, though... it's business as usual.
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FWIIW, I work for a major enterpirse software vendor and while we haven't sent everyone to wfh globally, it's being done on location by location basis. If an employee is confirmed infected, that office gets closed down at least until it can be disinfected and their contacts traced. Or if there are widescale measures put in place by the local governments like in Italy of course.
Another reason we hear about tech is that we can actually do it. Nobody really has to leave the house except of some data center guy
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Trump's family business is hotels. COVID-19 is killing the hospitality industry. Trump has Russian mafia payments to make. Trump has the bully pulpit from which to spew his beliefs. Trump supporters don't dare question their overlord.
You do the math.
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That's not quite it. Trump is a malignant narcissistic. He is literally incapable of caring about anything but himself. So he loves the part of America that loves him. He can't even acknowledge the existence of an America that doesn't care about him.
He only hates the part of America that hates him. Which is, to be fair, a pretty big part but Trump's narcissism prevents him from comprehending that fact. In his mind, America loves him except for a small minority of haters. That's how his mental illness works.
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the red-hats (magats) will keep ignoring this, to their detriment.
(I could say something, but I'll hold off)
the really evil part of all this is that one group can affect the other's health, and that's dangerous. its putting others' lives at risk.
we can't let the redhats do what they want just to 'prove us wrong' because we all live in the same world, breathe the same air, touch the same surfaces.
this is a time where we cannot just say 'both sides are bad'. when one side acts in a manner that puts the othe
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why not? In the past working in software and IT I found I could work from home most of the time. Occasionally I might want to show up at the office but not too often. Maybe 1 day a week.
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Re "can't keep this policy going"... if they dont... smaller smarter brands can and will... their workers will be healthy, very productive and working at home.
Open and ready for new support, products services. From home.
Larger brands that have to meet in person? Thats like living in the EU.
It's madness I tell you... Madness. (Score:1)
I ride a bicycle to work on days that it isn't raining and rode to work this morning. On a major road this morning, a 2 to 3 mile stretch of US Hwy 23(Buford Hwy), I counted 3 cars. My ride to work [garmin.com] Most mornings there are 200 to 300 cars.
The mother of my son is not letting him go to school because 2 Atlanta schools are closed because a teacher has tested positive for the virus. All grocery stores are out of t
But Trump says go to work (Score:2)
And he's a stable genius.
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You sure are obsessed with getting people to believe this virus isn't a big deal. It's just about all you've written about since you created this account a month ago.
Who else wants us to believe this virus isn't a big deal? Hmm, who could it be? Maybe someone who owns a lot of hotels and is afraid of losing business, and therefore not being able to pay back the Russian mafia. Know anyone like that?
Seen an article about Mass/Public Transportation (Score:2)
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Anecdotal but I heard about a science paper that said one infection was on a bus, the 2 people were 4.5 meters apart, they never went on the same part of the bus and yet one of them supposedly caught the virus from the other meaning that it is very highly airborne. They said they'd ruled out all other possibilities and checked the facts carefully. But I think that still needs confirmation. It would explain though how so many people on a cruise ship caught the virus whilst quarantined - if the virus was trav
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The government here closed schools and banned all public events over 100 people but still claimed public transport is fine to use.
I can't see how this can possibly be the case becasue subway or tram cars can easily fit over 100 peope, but even if they're not fully packed, you're still breathing in each others' faces and touching handrails touched by hundreds of others. While it's not something I'm 100% confident in, I've seen some anlyses showing that the virus can remain alive for hours on plastic or metal
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Relax (Score:2)
Relax, Google and Amazon and Microsoft do this all the time!
Oh wait, no they don't. In fact they've never done it before. They must all be a bunch of pansies, panicking like this over a simple pandemic, huh?
Not what I assumed (Score:3)
I figured it meant that Google was going to cutoff the coronavirus from ad revenue. After all, that's their standard procedure.
Everyone should stay home (Score:2)
according to our prime minister here in Denmark this evening, they are closing schools and public offices etc and everyone in the country who can work from home should do so, beginning from Monday is their word now. :D
Interesting. The truth is that I get more work done from home because I escape from all the chatter and impromptu meetings that people decide to hold in the open office environment.
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The truth is that I get more work done from home because I escape from all the chatter and impromptu meetings that people decide to hold in the open office environment. :D
This is probably true for a lot of people. I wonder how many people will want to return to the office once the outbreak cools off, after seeing the improvements in productivity and personal well-being. Not to mention the benefits to climate/environment from reduced traffic.
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They had weeks and stayed open to the world. Now the reality of wuflu math sets in.
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Note the results in an EU nation that stayed open for longer like Italy... AC.
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