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This seemingly goes further than Google’s travel restrictions[1] and it’s safe to assume more tech companies will encourage reduced or even restrict travel. How

This seemingly goes further than Google’s travel restrictions[1] and it’s safe to assume more tech companies will encourage reduced or even restrict travel. How long until these companies start to encourage remote work to reduce transmission or has any major tech company already done this? [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/google-employee-tests-positive-for-novel-coronavirus-company-restricts-travel-2020-2 https://www.businessinsider.com/google-employee-tests-positi...

SomeHacker44 7y ago
My large company has banned travel to certain countries without speciql authorization, and anyone who has been to same before the ban required to work from home for at least two weeks. Furthermore, anyone sick is encouraged to work from home or take sick days. We have offices in quite a few countries and our products are used in almost all. I expect a trip to India for some of my team may be cancelled, from the US.
new_realist 7y ago
It’s easier for Amazon; they’re so cheap they hate employees traveling even in healthy times.
- akhilcacharya 7y ago
  The PMs/TPMs I know travel constantly.
  - mav3rick 7y ago
    The travel cap is so ridiculously low. Even a 3 to 4 star hotel was over cap in South Africa and my PM friend had to pay out of pocket. Amazon truly hates its employees. The least they could do is free Prime but no not even that. Well let's start with bathroom breaks for the warehouse people first.
    - otterley 7y ago
      I work for AWS - opinions are my own and not of the company. I don't know about your "friend," but I don't share their experience. I have occasionally had to stay in hotels that were more expensive than the "reasonable price" listed due to higher fees than normal. Sometimes it's impossible to get a room in Seattle or New York -- or especially San Francisco -- for less than $300 a night, especially during busy seasons like summertime. The travel portal does warn you if a room charge is in excess of "reasonable" rates, but it will still allow you to book your stay. And I have never had a hotel room expense claim denied after the fact, even if I had to pay excess rates. Overall, my impression of our travel and expense policies is that they are totally reasonable. I've had far fewer issues traveling as an Amazon employee than I have at other companies. The only hard limit that's ever been imposed on us is that we must fly economy coach rates; any excess must be paid out of pocket or come out of airline frequent flier benefits. And there are even some exceptions now for extremely long flights for some employees, where they are permitted to upgrade to Premium Economy.
      - mav3rick 7y ago
        At G you can regularly fly business. If you save the company money you can use the credits for upgrades in your next business related trip. I found that I am way more productive when I am flying half way across the world and am well rested in the flight.
        akhilcacharya 7y ago
        Nice, I guess? In the era of gigabit broadband and zoom/chime/hangouts/etc i'm not sure why an engineer would even need to travel half way across the world to even need to be "well rested". Is there something more you're trying to say here? That we are less valuable or something?
        mav3rick 7y ago
        Aah, have you ever tried working on a project with a team from a different time zone. It can get slow when time zones don't sync. We travel to get face time and really prototype some difficult stuff. You're trying to defend Amazon's behavior by undermining face to face interaction. I am trying to reinforce the parent point in this thread. That Amazon is cheap even more so when it comes to travel.
- mav3rick 7y ago
  So true
rochak 7y ago
Do you have any idea about what’s gonna happen to people who are going to intern at these companies? I will be interning at Amazon this summer and am afraid it doesn’t get cancelled.

SomeHacker44 7y ago

My large company has banned travel to certain countries without speciql authorization, and anyone who has been to same before the ban required to work from home for at least two weeks. Furthermore, anyone sick is encouraged to work from home or take sick days. We have offices in quite a few countries and our products are used in almost all. I expect a trip to India for some of my team may be cancelled, from the US.

new_realist 7y ago

It’s easier for Amazon; they’re so cheap they hate employees traveling even in healthy times.

akhilcacharya 7y ago
The PMs/TPMs I know travel constantly.
- mav3rick 7y ago
  The travel cap is so ridiculously low. Even a 3 to 4 star hotel was over cap in South Africa and my PM friend had to pay out of pocket. Amazon truly hates its employees. The least they could do is free Prime but no not even that. Well let's start with bathroom breaks for the warehouse people first.
  - otterley 7y ago
    I work for AWS - opinions are my own and not of the company. I don't know about your "friend," but I don't share their experience. I have occasionally had to stay in hotels that were more expensive than the "reasonable price" listed due to higher fees than normal. Sometimes it's impossible to get a room in Seattle or New York -- or especially San Francisco -- for less than $300 a night, especially during busy seasons like summertime. The travel portal does warn you if a room charge is in excess of "reasonable" rates, but it will still allow you to book your stay. And I have never had a hotel room expense claim denied after the fact, even if I had to pay excess rates. Overall, my impression of our travel and expense policies is that they are totally reasonable. I've had far fewer issues traveling as an Amazon employee than I have at other companies. The only hard limit that's ever been imposed on us is that we must fly economy coach rates; any excess must be paid out of pocket or come out of airline frequent flier benefits. And there are even some exceptions now for extremely long flights for some employees, where they are permitted to upgrade to Premium Economy.
    - mav3rick 7y ago
      At G you can regularly fly business. If you save the company money you can use the credits for upgrades in your next business related trip. I found that I am way more productive when I am flying half way across the world and am well rested in the flight.
      - akhilcacharya 7y ago
        Nice, I guess? In the era of gigabit broadband and zoom/chime/hangouts/etc i'm not sure why an engineer would even need to travel half way across the world to even need to be "well rested". Is there something more you're trying to say here? That we are less valuable or something?
        mav3rick 7y ago
        Aah, have you ever tried working on a project with a team from a different time zone. It can get slow when time zones don't sync. We travel to get face time and really prototype some difficult stuff. You're trying to defend Amazon's behavior by undermining face to face interaction. I am trying to reinforce the parent point in this thread. That Amazon is cheap even more so when it comes to travel.
mav3rick 7y ago
So true

rochak 7y ago

Do you have any idea about what’s gonna happen to people who are going to intern at these companies? I will be interning at Amazon this summer and am afraid it doesn’t get cancelled.