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Re:Covid-19 reached my city but company says no to WFH so I'... by ajross on Friday March 06, 2020 @07:19PM (#22508675)
So... from the purely personal perspective of the author who quit: yes, realistically WFH isn't going to keep you alive. If it becomes a pandemic, eventually we're all going to get it. That's what pandemic means.

But straightforward management strategies like remote work still have value, because in a pandemic the problem just that everyone gets stick, it's that everyone gets sick at the same time. So... now you have to compare the mortality rate of a serious but normal flu infection when treated at a well-equipped hospital to the mortality rate of contracting COVID-19 in a city with effectively no hospital space available.

That's what we're trying to fix. And it's doable, but not if everyone (including, very frustratingly, our leaders) tries to pretend like nothing is wrong. If your office environment is plausibly exposed (and in the modern world of international geeks, almost all tech offices are), and you can WFH, you should WFH. Period.

Re:Covid-19 reached my city but company says no to WFH so I'... by perl4ever on Friday March 06, 2020 @07:28PM (#22508744)
"If your office environment is plausibly exposed (and in the modern world of international geeks, almost all tech offices are), and you can WFH, you should WFH. Period."

I work for a government agency, and I asked my union rep about this, and was told, oh, if there are more cases, maybe they will do something then. You know, you live and die by the rules, and the rules say you can't WFH whenever you want, even though everybody has laptops, unlike when I worked in the private sector.

Re:Covid-19 reached my city but company says no to WFH so I'... by icebraining on Friday March 06, 2020 @07:28PM (#22508747)
It's not just the office, it's the public transportation too. I'm generally a fan, but it's hard to argue it's not an extra factor of risk in these situations.