Twitter staff ordered to work from home over virus fears

Twitter has ordered its employees to work from home as the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow.

The social-media giant made working from home mandatory for its roughly 4,900 employees around the world less than two weeks after encouraging them to do so. The company said it has a “responsibility to support our communities, those who are vulnerable, and the healthcare providers who are on the front lines of this pandemic.”

“We understand this is an unprecedented step, but these are unprecedented times,” Twitter said in a blog post Wednesday.

The San Francisco-based company said it will continue to pay hourly workers and contractors who can’t perform their jobs at home. It will also reimburse staffers for the expenses of setting up a home office, such as desks and chairs, according to the blog post.

Twitter did not indicate how long the work-from-home mandate would last.

But the company said it has provided resources to help staffers adjust to their new working environment, including guides for working across time zones and conducting virtual interviews.

“We’ll continue sharing information as we navigate these changes,” Twitter said in the blog post. “It’s all in dedication to keeping our Tweeps and everyone around us healthy.”

Twitter is among several big tech companies that have urged employees to work from home amid growing fears about the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on Wednesday.

Google has recommended that all of its employees in North America work from home if possible, and Facebook and Amazon have given similar guidance to staffers in certain parts of the US, according to Reuters.