To protect employees from the coronavirus outbreak quickly spreading throughout the U.S., Google has recommended that its North American employees work from home for the next month, a move that impacts more than 1,000 employees at its Midwest headquarters in Chicago.
Google’s offices remain open to employees whose roles require they come in, but everyone else is being advised to avoid the office if they can, according to a Google spokesperson. Members of Google's extended workforce, like those who work in the office cafes, are being compensated for the time they would have worked.
As of Wednesday morning, there were 19 confirmed cases of coronavirus, also referred to as COVID-19, in Illinois.
Before this latest announcement of Google office closures, the tech company’s New York and California offices were already giving employees the option to work from home, and employees in Washington were recommended to do so. Google also last week canceled I/O 2020, its biggest event of the year.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Google first came to Chicago in 2000 and has been steadily expanding its local workforce since. As of November, Google was approaching 1,200 employees after it opened a second office nearby its first in the Fulton Market neighborhood. Across the two office buildings, Google employs people in product, engineering, technical infrastructure and finance roles.
Google’s announcement comes as other tech and startup companies have changed daily operations to address the spreading of coronavirus in Chicago. Oracle canceled its Modern Business Experience 2020 conference, which had been scheduled for later this month. And ReviewTrackers, a local B2B software review startup, has shut down its office indefinitely, asking employees to work from home.
Beyond Chicago, big tech companies are canceling events and changing office policies to reduce the chance of spreading the virus. SXSW, one of the largest and most-popular tech and media events of the year, has been canceled, and the organization laid off one third of its full-time staff as a result.
Coronavirus originated in mainland China at the end of last year and has been spreading globally since. Symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of press time, there have been more than 1,000 reported cases in the U.S., including 31 deaths. The global death toll was 4,290 on Wednesday morning, while more than 118,000 people have been infected in 113 countries, according to the World Health Organization.
