Tech Companies Face Logistical Issues With All-Remote Workforces

"It's early days. And it has been messy," declares the WSJ re: the nearly 1 million Big Tech employees working from home. You'd think it'd be seamless for techies to adjust to the new status quo, but alas, like many of you, tech workers are going a bit stir crazy.

First up: Apple

America's favorite consumer technology company prides itself on secrecy, but that may be a weakness during extraordinary circumstances. Some Apple devs are flummoxed by new marching orders and WFH life, per the WSJ. That's especially true for the employees assigned to super duper secret projects.

• Pure speculation: Work will be delayed for the small team working on Apple's AR and VR headsets, which are still a couple years out as it is. Whiteboarding over FaceTime isn't a perfect substitute for physically tinkering around with the hardware that forms the basis of Apple's next platform play.

In other first world issues, Applers are experiencing slower download speeds and difficulty accessing the company's internal network.

+ While we're here: Apple's June WWDC developer conference will be streamed online.

Elsewhere in SV

• Google's 119,000 employees were also directed to WFH, but not before raiding company snack bars.
• Many Facebook content moderators are still working on-site, due to the sensitive nature of the job.
• Along with the three companies already mentioned, Microsoft said it will continue paying hourly workers and support staff who aren't needed at corporate campuses.

A sudden shift to all-remote poses new cultural, logistics, and productivity challenges—namely asking your coworker to please mute on the video chat.

At Big Tech company Morning Brew...here's a little peek inside the drama we're dealing with:

• "Is anyone home/not planning on picking up their monitor from the office? I don't want to move my NASA monitor so was gonna just grab someone else's," top Morning Brew engineer Tyler wrote on Slack yesterday.
• "U can't take mine," responded my boss Neal.

Bottom line: Silicon Valley works quickly, has short product cycles, and ships on a tight deadline. These next few months will present major challenges to that model. And Tyler cannot have Neal's monitor.