My employer had its first all-remote global town hall last week. Normally, all the execs have a global town hall four times a year to give us a chance to discuss the company’s business and for us to ask questions to key leaders. The execs usually are on stage together in an auditorium.
This latest global town hall obviously could not be in that fashion. So, it was done over Zoom. Other than that, it was pretty much the same format. A lot of the discussion centered around the work from home situation. With the exception of the Shanghai studio, all employees in the rest of our locations world-wide are working from home. We were informed that even as local jurisdictions in many places in the world were loosening regulations, the company is holding steady in a conservative approach to allowing employees to return to work. We were told that for most employees, we should not expect to come back to work until closer to the end of the year. That means that everyone will pretty much need to work from home for the whole summer and well into the fall.
I’m ok with that and I’m extremely pleased that company leadership is valuing safety above all else. In many of our studios, space is at a premium and many employees work less than 2m away from at least one other co-worker. If we returned to work this month, it would be impossible to be socially distanced from your fellow employees. The company will need to invest in time and money to alter work locations to assist in keeping everyone safe.
It’s looking like I’ll probably be working from home at least six months out of this year. That will mean I’ll continue to save money. No need for a transit pass. I’ll save money on food instead of spending it at the cafeteria. Again, with many things in life, I’ll take it day by day, month by month but I’ll be ok with work. Many others don’t have that luxury.