Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Google Just Announced an Incredible Workplace Experiment

This solves the key problem that Stanford researchers faced. The results should be fascinating.

If you work for Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google or Twitter, chances are you’re likely to be working from home this month.

The reason, of course, is the coronavirus. Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Google and Twitter are doing their part to try to slow or stop its spread, especially in certain higher-risk cities. 

Obviously, a viral crisis like this is a tragedy. But one small positive side-effect is that is that we should soon have a giant trove of data on the effectiveness of working from home.

And if you’re an entrepreneur or business owner who has been considering greater workplace flexibility–after all, it’s what Bill Gates says is most important–this might well be a very important impromptu experiment.

First, the details on the big tech companies and their work-from-home dictates, then the research-related background:

• At Amazon, “all employees based in Seattle/Bellevue who work in a role that can be done from home, [should] do so through the end of March,” according to a memo obtained by Geekwire.
• Similarly, Google is asking its 4,500 employees in Seattle to consider working remotely, and also to avoid bringing outside guests to the office.
• Apple asked its Silicon Valley employees on Friday to work from home as a “precaution,” according to Reuters.
• Microsoft asked its employees in Seattle and San Francisco to work from home until March 25, according to an internal email obtained by Business Insider. 
• Twitter asked its entire, worldwide workforce of 5,000 people to work from home, and made the move mandatory for employees in places like Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea, with higher rates of coronavirus diagnoses.  

Again, nobody is happy about the coronavirus outbreak. But since it’s happening and big tech companies are reacting, the whole thing could amount to an amazing silver lining for researchers.

Read more: https://www.inc.com