The Coronavirus is now spreading in the United States and there is the beginning of an outbreak not too far from the Microsoft office in Seattle. Two Google offices, one in Zurich and one in Dublin are impacted. The Zurich office had a case of an employee being confirmed with the virus. While some Google and Bing employees are being allowed to work from home, not all are.

Long time Google search engine engineer, Ryan Moulton, posted in a Hacker News thread his frustration with Google’s lack of initiative here. He said “Really frustrated that my employer isn’t doing this. I convinced my immediate manager to give everyone approval to WFH, but I cannot fathom why the whole company isn’t. I don’t know whether it’s an issue of priorities, foresight, or capabilities.” This is in a discussion around Stripe announcing that they are “encouraging – and, in some instances, mandating – employees to work from home.” Stripe is also pausing all business travel and suspending visitors to Stripe offices.

Frederic Dubut from Microsoft Bing said he is telling all his co-workers to stay home and work from home:

8,000 Googlers in Dublin are working from home after a Googler in Zurich tested positive for COVID-19. But in Zurich, I suspect many are working at home but hard to tell. At least Gary Illyes and John Mueller and friends are making the best of it – they are based in Zurich:

Seems like Gary is home:

On Sunday, I did tell my employees they can work from home if they like – no questions asked.

Hope everyone stays safe and healthy!

Forum discussion at Twitter.

John also said he is not going to international events, he will video conference in instead: