Microsoft employees had slept in the data centers during the pandemic to ensure uninterrupted services for their consumers. While people were encouraged to work from home some important employees were asked to stay at the data centers, who worked at the on-site locations containing the servers for online services and infrastructures powering third parties
Amidst the pandemic, numerous tech giants have asked their employees to work from home. However, some employees at Microsoft had to literally stay in the data centers as a challenging part of their job
Generally, data centers are not supposed to be the ideal locations to sleep in because of the hot air coming from the servers and cold air because of air conditioning to prevent machines from overheating
Accommodation for people staying at data centers:
The company was reported to change several aspects to their centers during the pandemic to incorporate the workers sleeping in the centers. They even provided hotel and travel accommodations
Speaking to CNBC, Kristen Roby Dimlow, corporate vice president for total rewards, performance, and human resources business insights, said “I heard amazing stories about people actually sleeping in data centers. In certain countries, there was big lockdown, so we would have our own employees choose to sleep in the data center because they were anxious if they’d get stuck at a roadblock, trying to go home.”
While important workers were asked to stay in, options were always kept open for them to go home, if they felt anxious
“We had to in some cases go to shift work, day and night, to get the work done within the same schedule,” Noelle walsh, vice president of the company
However, recently Microsoft has deployed eye-level cameras in conference rooms so that people can have eye contact with their virtual teammates via conference call
Read More: Microsoft joins forces with GM to expedite the rollout of electric and self-driving cars
Also, Microsoft is encouraging flexible working hours for most of its employees around the globe, employees can work from home for less than half a week without the manager’s approval
Source: CNBC
