Twitter urges staff to work from home in bid to contain coronavirus

Follow our live coronavirus updates here
Jack Dorsey said the move comes from a desire to be cautious
AFP via Getty Images
Ewan Somerville3 March 2020

Twitter is urging its staff around the globe to work from home in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus.

CEO Jack Dorsey says the decision comes from an “abundance of caution and care”.

It follows the social network firm suspending all non-essential business travel and events, and placing a restriction on visitors as part of its attempts to minimise the spread of the virus, known as Covid-19.

Jennifer Christie, Twitter’s head of human resources, said the company was now “strongly encouraging” all staff around the world to work from home “if they’re able” - but this will be mandatory for all employees in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea due to government restrictions.

“Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus for us – and the world around us,” she said.

“We are working to make sure internal meetings, all hands, and other important tasks are optimised for remote participation.

Coronavirus - In pictures

1/80

“We recognise that working from home is not ideal for some job functions. For those employees who prefer or need to come into the offices, they will remain open for business.”

Twitter said it was also increasingly deep cleaning and sanitising in all its offices for those who needed to attend them.

Twitter staff in East Asia offices are being told to go home, while others have been encouraged to follow suit
Getty Images

Many Asian firms have implemented similar measures, but the move is rarer for a US company, with cases in the country currently standing at 101.

However, both Facebook and Twitter have pulled out of the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Texas in the wake of the outbreak, and Mark Zuckerberg’s firm has cancelled the “in-person” parts of its annual F8 developer conference, due to take place in early May.

Some 8,000 staff at Google's European headquarters in Dublin are set to work from home on Tuesday so the company can test its readiness for a potential outbreak in Ireland, but most are expected to return on Wednesday.

US telecoms giant A&T and banking giant Citigroup are among the other multinationals to restrict international travel.

Since the Covid-19 illness emerged in December, cases have rocketed to 90,306 worldwide with the death toll passing 3,000 - most of those in China.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in