J.P. Morgan and Macquarie Expand Work-From-Home
To prevent the coronavirus from spreading amongst its staff, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup have told employees that those who can work from home to start implementing such arrangements this week.
Australia's Macquarie Group has taken the work-from-home arrangement further, telling the majority of its staff globally to work from home. Most of Sydney-based Macquarie's 15,760 staff worldwide will work from home, with only a small fraction of staff operating from offices, «Bloomberg» reported.
«This is only for employees who have roles that can be performed from home. We know many of you need to continue to work on-site because of your customer-facing roles or other jobs that cannot be done from home -- particularly in our branches and call centers. We are actively reviewing how we can best support you at this time,» the group said in an internal memo.
Decreasing Travel
Citigroup's directive, which applies to employees in the New York metropolitan area, excludes «site-dependent» personnel, referring to people essential to running operations, such as those in sales and trading, as well as bank-branch workers as branches remain open. The change means workers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who had been scheduled to rotate among sites will instead stay away from those offices until further notice.
«This is intended to help keep colleagues safe by decreasing the number of people traveling to and working in our sites,» the bank said in a memo to employees. The moves come as cities and states around the U.S. join governments around the world in taking unprecedented measures to arrest the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus.
In New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, crowds of more than 50 people are banned, and bars, restaurants, and gyms were to close at 8 pm on Monday. States including California, Ohio, and Illinois are taking similar steps.
