Coronavirus: Businesses encouraging employees to work remotely from home

SEATTLE — In Seattle on Thursday, you could see the change.

Streets and sidewalks are quiet.

"Bit of a ghost town," said Tim, who does facilities work for a company downtown.

Working from home is suddenly the new normal.

Near Amazon offices in South Lake Union, stools were upside down on tables in one restaurant.

At Hurry Curry of Tokyo during lunchtime, few people were dining.

“This time of day the restaurant would be packed; there would be lines out the door and we would be hustling,” said co-owner Becky Yoshitani.

Ryan Bush is among those working from home. “We’ve had our normal conference calls and are going on your typical day-to-day work life. You just spend it over video chat or phone calls, rather than face to face,” he said.

Bush works for Commute Seattle, which helps employers develop flexible work policies.

In 2019, that firm found that 6% of downtown workers teleworked at least one day a week.

“Small businesses and large businesses should all have a policy in place for when things like this do happen,” Bush said.

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