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IBM AT&T IT

IBM and AT&T Tell Employees To Work From Home (kimt.com) 49

Posted by EditorDavid from the time-to-telecommute dept.
Slashdot reader Willy English quotes CNBC: AT&T is asking all of its employees who have the ability to work remotely to do so until further notice, as the coronavirus spreads across the globe.

The company will be announcing new procedures and safeguards for employees who can't work from home, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in a note sent to employees Friday. AT&T is one of the largest employers in the United States, and has 245,000 global employees.
Meanwhile, a local U.S. news station reports: IBM is encouraging all employees in the United States to work from home through the end of March, if possible.

In an email sent to employees and provided to KIMT, the technology company says the recommendation is in response to the global coronavirus pandemic.
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IBM and AT&T Tell Employees To Work From Home

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  • I know the kids here are all fantasizing about Fallout style apocalyptic outcomes, but the reality is that things will be back to "normal" in about 2-3 weeks. The curves are already flattening in Asia. They are still increasing in the US simply because we had it later. In another 2-3 weeks it will have peaked here and the curves have flattened. And here is another dose of reality: remember the H1N1 virus outbreak in 2009? Well guess what? H1N1 still exists! 8000 cases last year alone in the US. Wow, amazing

    • Again, the problem isn't that people get sick and die. Nobody cares about that. What the powers that are are worried about is that a LOT of people get sick at the same time, medical facilities get overwhelmed and people start to panick.

      And to make matters worse, there's an election coming. THAT's the true danger here.

      • Well, I care if people get sick and die. We should avoid that. Wash your hands. Self quarantine. Buy toilet paper. And yeah, a lot of this is political and economic and people don't want to be seen as inactive in response. But it isn't backed up by science.

        • "Well, I care if people get sick and die. We should avoid that. Wash your hands. Self quarantine. Buy toilet paper"

          Get a fucking bidet and you don't need toilet paper.

      • "And to make matters worse, there's an election coming. THAT's the true danger here."

        No, the danger is if an election is NOT coming, because someone says, it's too dangerous, and because he is the only one who can master such a situation.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by k6mfw ( 1182893 )
        Your comment sure has generated a lot of reactions! Though this virus is a problem but also a huge problem is how people are reacting to it. Huge runs at stores (all that stuff many have stockpiled will most likely be going to the landfill next month), big companies cancelling conferences but what about all those local vendors, small restaurants? They just had almost all their customers disappear. We also see exactly what are elected officials can or cannot do.

        • What puzzles me the most is that of all the things they could stockpile, they stockpile toilet paper. Why?

    • I sincerely hope your 2-3 week expectation of returning to normality is realistic, rather than the more sobering thought of losing about ten percent of elderly and vulnerable people, with a similar percentage of very sick friends and relatives.

    • "I know the kids here are all fantasizing about Fallout style apocalyptic outcomes, but the reality is that things will be back to "normal" in about 2-3 weeks."

      2-3 years.

      • No. 2-3 weeks. Things have already returned to "normal" in China. Don't believe me? Go ask someone who actually lives there.

        • It'll take longer than 2-3 weeks simply because we havent put in place the lockdown measures China did, or have the testing capacity like South Korea does. I expect issues to last in the US through April at the least. Especially since our halfhearted measures will just slow the spread rather than allow for a quick peak then drop if it could spread "naturally".

          • Maybe. Maybe it will be 4-8 weeks. But everyone right now is targeting April 1st. Either way it won't be the apocalypse.

            • Everyone is targeting April 1st because you need an end date or people will really start to panic, and end of the month is a logical stopping point, especially seeing as how the 14 days quarantine is pretty much engrained with covid19 now. But I think in the next week or 2 you will see closings extended to May. I work in commercial aviation and my company is taking this more seriously than they did 9/11.

              • Possibly. I said 2-3 weeks but it might be 4-8 weeks. Life will go on.

                • For all but a couple thousand sure, it will. But it'll be a painful few weeks/months and the ripples will be felt for a while.

                  • My guess is that 40,000 - 80,000 will die in the US from this particular virus. People die of viruses.

                    • I think your missing people's points here, we know people will die, but have some sort of empathy towards it. What would happen if we could flatten it out and possibly only 10k people die? That is the goal here. Flatten it out and spread it out so we don't have to make decisions on who should die. Having a level of empathy towards an event of this magnitude and being able to put this all in perspective is kind of a rare trait.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

          China has been under quarantine for about 8 weeks. They started quarantining with only 571 cases.

          The US and EU are a long way from getting to where China was 8 weeks ago.

          A bit about what's happening in China now:
          https://foreignpolicy.com/2020... [foreignpolicy.com]

          • The other part that is despicable with China, they are forcing people back to work to re-open factories because they fear losing control and they fear the economic actions if other countries bring production back to their home shores.

            Chinese companies have already been caught selling fake tests, what is next?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

      The curves are flattening in Asia because they started quarantining since 2020Jan23rd, China had only 571 known cases when it implemented a big crack-down, this virus still spread to 80,000 people there, a 140-fold increase after strict quarantines were enacted.

      EU and US have not implemented any serious measures yet to stop people from meeting other people and spreading the disease.

      Based upon previous out of control pandemics, this one will likely go on for another 2 to 3 months.

      If the government does imple

  • Customer facing employees though (Score:3)

    by t4eXanadu ( 143668 ) on Sunday March 15, 2020 @09:15AM (#59832196)

    The ones who really should work from home, those working in the retails stores, cannot. Just wanted to make that clear.

    • Kind of makes Amazon's cashierless stores seem prescient.

      • Indeed, you beat me to it.

      • Some people still have to stock those stores, and in cases like this we still get a herd going in and cleaning the place out, the bottle neck still becomes getting the resources to where they can be distributed.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      How does a telco worker fix a physical issue from their home after the break in the network is discovered?
      Some sort of truck has to drive out with the needed support and do the repairs.
      Work from home might be able to take the call, set a time to do the work and schedule the crew for the work.
      A lot more work 24/7 to keeping the power, water, food going for any huge modern city than just "retails stores".
      Everyone trusted to do the needed complex work everyday has to report for work.
      From the farm to the f

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