Coronavirus Has Silicon Valley Companies Telling Employees to Work From Home

The list of tech companies advising their employees to work from home because of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak just keeps getting longer and longer.

Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook advised workers in the Seattle area to work from home last week as COVID-19 spread throughout Washington. In the time since, companies in Silicon Valley have told their workers to stay home as well, and it wouldn't be surprising if tech companies in New York followed suit before too long.

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Here are the latest companies having their workers stay home because of COVID-19:

• Apple
• HP
• Intel
• LinkedIn
• Lyft
• Salesforce
• Twitter

So far the work-from-home directives have primarily affected people who live in areas with confirmed COVID-19 cases; employees in other areas are still expected to head into the office like usual. There are some exceptions, however, with Twitter advising its global workforce to work from home whenever possible. 

Many of these cancellations have also followed guidance from health officials. King County officials told Washington companies to encourage remote work, for example, and Santa Clara County officials followed suit. We suspect New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's push for New Yorkers to work from home could lead to similar directives.

COVID-19 isn't just leading tech companies to have their employees work from home, though. It's also led to the cancellation of major events around the world, (in addition to forcing many to go digital-only or postpone their plans indefinitely). Don't be surprised if the outbreak leads to even more changes for techies going forward.