The Reason Many Work From Home Plans Are Hitting Glitches

Security, communications, internal rules and protocols, equipment, overloaded systems...

Many companies decreed work from home policies without understanding that, like most new systems or technologies, it would require analysis, investment and regular reevaluation. And for those thinking this will be a couple of weeks, most Chinese employees worked from home for six weeks or more. JL



Rob Copeland and Tripp Mickle report in the Wall Street Journal:

Some workers can’t access crucial internal systems from home due to strict security policies meant to fend off outsiders, which now includes off-site employees. Google was overrun with requests for “work from home” kits of monitors, cables and other technological must-haves. “A lot of organizations don’t have the technologies or culture to work this way.” Corporate leaders have long been divided on the practice, disagreeing on whether it lifts productivity or impairs innovation. Studies show it does both.

Silicon Valley’s tech giants are a week ahead of the rest of the country in conducting a nearly million-person, real-time experiment into whether it is possible to operate a fully remote workforce in the age of the coronavirus.

It’s early days. And it has been messy.

At many firms, foremost Apple Inc., the shift is especially tricky because of its tight rules around what work can be done remotely due to the secrecy around its products.

In recent days, software developers sent home by Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook have complained of slow download speeds and mounting confusion over still-evolving new internal rules about what work they are allowed to perform, staffers say. Some workers can’t access crucial internal systems from home due to strict security policies meant to fend off outsiders—which now includes off-site employees.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google was overrun with requests after it told its 119,000 employees to put in for “work from home” kits of monitors, cables and other technological must-haves, employees say. Facing a backlog and no certain date of delivery, many San Francisco employees came in over the weekend, despite requests from Google to avoid doing so, and hauled home desktop equipment and personal effects like family photos back with them.

The result is an eerie feeling in Google’s offices, employees say, akin to visiting the site of a robbery. The snack bars, bereft of candy and almond milk, are bare. Even some dry-erase boards have been wiped clean, a nod to the possibility that the offices could be abandoned for a while.

While Facebook Inc. recommended employees stay home when feasible, it required large blocks of staffers to remain at the office to press on with certain work—such as the policing of videos or images related to child abuse or pornography—deemed too sensitive to perform remotely.

“There are certain sensitive content review areas that can’t be done off-site,” a Facebook spokesman said. In recent days the company has started experimenting with allowing some contractors handling less charged issues to work from home, he said.

The company employs more than 15,000 contractors to help it police the platform, handling everything from spam posts to terrorist propaganda.

Silicon Valley offers a model for where the rest of the nation appears to be headed. Facebook, Amazon.com Inc. and Google were among the technology firms to recommend working from home to their employees in Seattle—site of an early coronavirus outbreak that included a worker at Amazon’s offices there—as early as March 4. They quickly expanded the orders to the Bay Area, New York and, by late this week, around the globe.

The companies declined to comment further.

Big tech companies have built-in advantages over other industries now shifting to remote work. Its companies built the cloud-based systems, such as Google Docs and Dropbox Paper, that enable remote collaboration. They also developed the tools that power people in various lines of work, like messaging services, video calls and disaggregated software storage.

The technology systems have helped the companies maintain operations and extend support to others. Google is developing a tool to help people navigate coronavirus testing, and cloud-software provider Box Inc. is offering unlimited capacity for a month to customers that need expanded storage.

Still, the forced transition hasn’t been smooth, and that raises questions about what lies ahead for other industries less accustomed to life outside the office.

in recent weeks spent millions of dollars on work-from-home equipment, including buying a laptop for every employee who didn’t already have one, according to people familiar with the matter.

“You’ll start seeing the breaking points,” said Aaron Levie, chief executive of Box, whose 2,000 employees have been home for a week. “A lot of organizations don’t have the technologies or culture to work this way.”

This isn’t the first go-round for remote work. International Business Machines Corp. helped pioneer the practice decades ago before calling all employees back to offices in 2017, when it cited the need to increase collaboration. Corporate leaders have long been divided on the practice, disagreeing on whether it lifts productivity or impairs innovation. Studies show it does both.

But the coronavirus outbreak, which began in China months ago before escalating dramatically in the U.S. over the past two weeks, forced West Coast companies to adopt blanket work-from-home policies that could span months. Workers in Hong Kong and mainland China struggled to adjust to the isolation during the six-plus weeks they were stuck at home.

Todd McKinnon, chief executive of software company Okta Inc., said his company’s new remote work plan was less than a month old when it was triggered March 5 by coronavirus cases within 50 miles of the company’s Bay Area offices. He told his 2,250 employees to go home immediately.

Mr. McKinnon is conducting important company business, including the weekly all-hands meeting attended by all Okta staff, from his laptop at the kitchen table, having been beaten out by his wife and son for the home office. “I’m thinking of doing ’Cribs,’” Mr. McKinnon said, referring to the MTV home-tour series. “If the moment strikes me, I might make sure everyone is dressed in the house and just walk around.”

Though Apple has encouraged staff to stay away from the office for health reasons, many engineers say they continue to come into headquarters, heeding company policy that forbids unreleased products from being removed from campus. The company has loosened some security restrictions but maintains them on any software that might reveal the nature of off-limits projects, staffers say.

Apple has instituted daily health screenings at the security desk for all staff on campus. “It’s all about lowering the density,” an Apple employee said, explaining the importance of having fewer people in the office.

Most Silicon Valley companies are already putting guardrails around hiring. Google, Amazon and Microsoft this month eliminated in-person candidate interviews. At Microsoft, the shift has made it difficult to evaluate potential hires’ problem-solving skills, typically tested by drilling through engineering problems in-person, a current employee said.

Some Amazon managers have advised their employees on health, and not just the coronavirus. One Bay Area Amazon employee said his boss reminded him to go outside for some fresh air. Another Amazon executive said he was hunting for the exact brand of string cheese, Frigo, now cleared out of the company’s Palo Alto offices.

Michelle Roque, a full-time Google contract worker in Mountain View, said she missed her desk plant.