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The Pulse of New York Tech

How NYC Tech is Making Sure Business Goes On in the Wake of Coronavirus Panic

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The coronavirus panic is in full swing and the New York City business community is being deeply affected. Events are canceled, decisions are not being made, and employees are afraid to commute. Find out what some of the tech companies in New York are doing to minimize the disruption to business operations through preparation and planning.

Lindsay Grenawalt
Cockroach Labs
Preparation has always been an important consideration for us, whether it's developing our product, setting our customers up for success, or keeping our employees safe. We don't know the full extent of any impact that coronavirus will have on our operations. Still, we're confident that our business is prepared to manage operations with the uncertainty of the virus. Preparation is easier for us due to our already-established commitment to making sure employees can do their job from wherever they need.
Under the current circumstances, we have enforced a stricter sick policy of working from home for any employees experiencing even the slightest of symptoms. For employees in and out of the office, we've shared CDC recommendations for personal prevention such as washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds - a recommendation we've made easier by sharing a list of 20-second song choruses to help mark the time (ex. Stayin Alive by The Beegees, Landslide by Fleetwood Mac and Love on Top by Beyonce). To cut down on personal contact, we've also halted all non-critical business travel both domestically and abroad, and we're working on transitioning any upcoming in-person events to virtual meetings.
We understand that the presence of the virus is changing daily. A lot of these changes could impact our day-to-day operations, so we have also developed business continuity plans in case of further escalation. These plans include encouraging remote work for employees that have vulnerable populations at home, more frequent and in-depth cleaning of all office surfaces, and limiting office visitors to essential personnel only. Because our employees are already accustomed to working from anywhere remotely, they have the tools and communication skills to keep Cockroach Labs moving forward through this possible pandemic.
Christine Schindler
PathSpot
As handwashing experts, we're working with our customers and major institutions to ensure they are fully prepared for coronavirus and taking the correct preventative measures. Foodservice providers should ensure their teams are reporting any physical signs or symptoms, provide the correct facilities to enable their staff to practice good hygiene, and provide effective supervision or validation through effective monitoring tools of hygiene practices. In addition to the traditional advice of an essential 20-second handwash with warm water and soap, we've analyzed our data from millions of handwashes across the country and also encourage individuals to remove all jewelry and scrub underneath fingernails to have the best possible handwashing procedure! Both quality and quantity of handwashes are very important to keep team members and customers they interact with healthy.
Danny Groner
SquareFoot
Our team has brought their laptops home every evening this week and ahead of last weekend in case of an escalation due to coronavirus concerns and to allow us to carry on with work remotely. We have previously been encouraged to wash hands and to Purell as much as possible, to disinfect devices regularly, and we have told people who feel sick to please stay home. In addition to those necessary precautions, management has as of Monday of this week imposed a travel ban for our employees. Our VP, People, wrote in a company-wide email:
"If you have traveled to, or are traveling to, any Warning Level 2 or 3 countries as determined by the CDC, upon your return you will have to work from home for two weeks. Current countries include China, Italy, South Korea, Iran, Japan.
We will be business as usual in all offices for the time being. Unless you hear otherwise, please continue to report to your office, but travel with your laptops/chargers each night. If you are planning to travel at all (for business or pleasure) please speak to your leadership team member ASAP."
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Ben Ramharak
Quontic Bank
Quontic conducts an annual Pandemic test to ensure that its Business Continuity Plan is up to date. Staff is prepared to scale down office operations and work remotely as situations require. Periodic employee advisories are sent with tips about protecting against communicable diseases from Federal, State and local authorities. Quontic has identified our Skeleton Crew and continually trains key members to perform all necessary functions to keep things running smoothly such as critical branch personnel, operations, and IT personnel for daily functions. Some require access to our physical locations but others can function remotely. Our IT team continuously ensures that our equipment inventory is up to date so that each department has remote/telecommuting capabilities for all requests.
David Reischer
LegalAdvice.com
We have started to encourage some of our sales team to start working remotely from home as a precautionary measure. Even though the coronavirus has not yet appeared in NYC where our offices are located, it seems inevitable that the biggest city in the world will eventually be effected by the coronavirus. We would rather our workers start thinking about the idea of working from home now so that they can transition now before the eventuality of the coronavirus arrives.
I think we will be ready when coronavirus becomes more widespread in NYC because of our early preparations. We are not discriminating against any of our employees by mandating some employees should come into the office while others can work remotely. All sales team employees are being encouraged to work from home but they have the ultimate choice to decide whether to do so on an equal opportunity basis.

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