6 ms·

Does anyone know the largest employer to have recommended all employees work from home?

unoti 7y ago
Microsoft has about 150k employees and recommended all work from home if they can. Google is around 100k. I don't know who's bigger than Microsoft that also did this.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  Tough act to follow for Wallmart... The tech industry has a huge advantage here. But there are jobs where you'd have the possibility to do this in industries that will take some re-arranging to make it work. Legal and financial for instance, call centers (some technical issues), most design and creative work. The impossible ones are anything involving care, production and logistics. Even retail could in principle be done but it would require a massive shift on the part of the consumer. Going shopping is very much ingrained and retooling that industry for home delivery is neither fast nor simple when done on a massive scale.
  - phreeza 7y ago
    Many production and logistics workplaces can probably implement distancing policies. Care, not so much...
  - CydeWeys 7y ago
    The problem is, Walmart can't shut down. They're the only grocery/drug store left in a lot of smaller towns. People depend on them for necessities. They can shut down most of their departments, the non-essential ones, but they're gonna need the grocery and pharmacy sections to remain open.
    - dx034 7y ago
      They don't need to. If office workers stay home and people can go shopping outside of rush hour, grocery workers should be mostly safe. Especially Walmarts tend to be rather large, it's certainly avoidable to be in close contact with customers there.
- w0m 7y ago
  Microsoft only recommended WFH in SF/Seattle so far, other sites waiting for it.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    WFH is definitely in effect for Microsoft China...
  - __s 7y ago
    I'm in Vancouver & have been supported in following the Seattle advice
better_names 7y ago
I guess we wait for IBM?
- TuringNYC 7y ago
  It is hard to track IBM because they have so much change, but for many years IBM has already been a largely WFH culture. I know they recently tried to change that, but not sure how much of the culture they changed.
  - war1025 7y ago
    I was going to say something similar to this. We did some work with IBM a few years ago and my boss said when he went for an on-site visit it was basically a giant office building that was mostly vacant.
- pmiller2 7y ago
  IBM is so large and geographically spread out, I doubt they'll be issuing a general WFH order/recommendation.
- solotronics 7y ago
  So far no official wfh which is troublesome considering we had engineers going to Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Italy who are based out of my office the last month. No way I am going in to the office. Oh and we have a Korean embassy in our building as well.
eigen 7y ago
MSFT has 144k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT/profile?p=MSFT https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT/profile?p=MSFT) GOOG has 118k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOG/profile?p=GOOG https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOG/profile?p=GOOG) APPL has 137k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/profile?p=AAPL https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/profile?p=AAPL) AMZN has 798k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMZN/profile?p=AMZN https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMZN/profile?p=AMZN) Note: this seems incorrect. INTC has 110k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/INTC/profile?p=INTC https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/INTC/profile?p=INTC) HPQ has 56k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HPQ/profile?p=HPQ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HPQ/profile?p=HPQ)
- dbliss 7y ago
  The AMZN number includes FT fulfillment center workers, so that number is in the ball park.
  - usrusr 7y ago
    I predict that one of the mid term outcomes of the pandemic will be that all those people in (food) production, logistics (including retail), care and infrastructure that require personal presence will be far more aware of the non-bullshit nature of their jobs than before. Particularly in contrast to the mind workers who can switch to WFH and who, with few exceptions, could stop work for an entire year and society at large would hardly notice. Expect those still leaving their homes for work in two weeks to end the year far more aware of relative pie slice sizes than they were a year earlier.
    - bnjms 7y ago
      That would be wonderful. One of the reasons I liked recent UBI proposals is because it jury are nonwage replacing but would do a lot to balance out the understood value of low-training-&-skilled-physical jobs.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    How do fulfillment center workers work from home?

Microsoft has about 150k employees and recommended all work from home if they can. Google is around 100k. I don't know who's bigger than Microsoft that also did this.

jacquesm 7y ago
Tough act to follow for Wallmart... The tech industry has a huge advantage here. But there are jobs where you'd have the possibility to do this in industries that will take some re-arranging to make it work. Legal and financial for instance, call centers (some technical issues), most design and creative work. The impossible ones are anything involving care, production and logistics. Even retail could in principle be done but it would require a massive shift on the part of the consumer. Going shopping is very much ingrained and retooling that industry for home delivery is neither fast nor simple when done on a massive scale.
- phreeza 7y ago
  Many production and logistics workplaces can probably implement distancing policies. Care, not so much...
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  The problem is, Walmart can't shut down. They're the only grocery/drug store left in a lot of smaller towns. People depend on them for necessities. They can shut down most of their departments, the non-essential ones, but they're gonna need the grocery and pharmacy sections to remain open.
  - dx034 7y ago
    They don't need to. If office workers stay home and people can go shopping outside of rush hour, grocery workers should be mostly safe. Especially Walmarts tend to be rather large, it's certainly avoidable to be in close contact with customers there.
w0m 7y ago
Microsoft only recommended WFH in SF/Seattle so far, other sites waiting for it.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  WFH is definitely in effect for Microsoft China...
- __s 7y ago
  I'm in Vancouver & have been supported in following the Seattle advice

better_names 7y ago

I guess we wait for IBM?

TuringNYC 7y ago
It is hard to track IBM because they have so much change, but for many years IBM has already been a largely WFH culture. I know they recently tried to change that, but not sure how much of the culture they changed.
- war1025 7y ago
  I was going to say something similar to this. We did some work with IBM a few years ago and my boss said when he went for an on-site visit it was basically a giant office building that was mostly vacant.
pmiller2 7y ago
IBM is so large and geographically spread out, I doubt they'll be issuing a general WFH order/recommendation.
solotronics 7y ago
So far no official wfh which is troublesome considering we had engineers going to Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Italy who are based out of my office the last month. No way I am going in to the office. Oh and we have a Korean embassy in our building as well.

eigen 7y ago

MSFT has 144k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT/profile?p=MSFT https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT/profile?p=MSFT) GOOG has 118k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOG/profile?p=GOOG https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOG/profile?p=GOOG) APPL has 137k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/profile?p=AAPL https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/profile?p=AAPL) AMZN has 798k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMZN/profile?p=AMZN https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMZN/profile?p=AMZN) Note: this seems incorrect. INTC has 110k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/INTC/profile?p=INTC https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/INTC/profile?p=INTC) HPQ has 56k FTE (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HPQ/profile?p=HPQ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HPQ/profile?p=HPQ)

dbliss 7y ago
The AMZN number includes FT fulfillment center workers, so that number is in the ball park.
- usrusr 7y ago
  I predict that one of the mid term outcomes of the pandemic will be that all those people in (food) production, logistics (including retail), care and infrastructure that require personal presence will be far more aware of the non-bullshit nature of their jobs than before. Particularly in contrast to the mind workers who can switch to WFH and who, with few exceptions, could stop work for an entire year and society at large would hardly notice. Expect those still leaving their homes for work in two weeks to end the year far more aware of relative pie slice sizes than they were a year earlier.
  - bnjms 7y ago
    That would be wonderful. One of the reasons I liked recent UBI proposals is because it jury are nonwage replacing but would do a lot to balance out the understood value of low-training-&-skilled-physical jobs.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  How do fulfillment center workers work from home?