While people around the world have been encouraged to quarantine themselves at home and practice social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News Media CEO, Suzanne Scott, suggests that the company’s employees who have been working from home may be able to return to the office as soon as May. Scott made the announcement on Friday, saying Fox Corporation “will be targeting Monday, May 4th for a possible return to work and we will update everyone on that over the next few weeks.”
While the company is eager to return to business as usual, it is being reported that not all employees would return at one time, according to Variety. Instead, staffers would return in stages. “I’m using the word ‘target,’” Scott explained, “Because as we all know this is an evolving and changing crisis, sometimes by the day and sometimes by the hour.” If the workers return on her targeted date, Scott noted that each employee would be given a thermometer and would be required to check their temperature before going to work.
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“Anyone with a temperature above 100.4 should not be reporting to work,” she said. In the meantime, some employees have been going into the office but are at the absolute “minimum number” in efforts to push out content but keep people safe at the same time.
Though the pandemic has been a stressful and emotional period for everyone, Scott said she is proud of her employees for coping with the big changes, saying, “Despite a scaled back footprint and a dramatic transition to a remote workforce, we’ve continued to produce some of the most enterprising and informative coverage, from providing live overnight hours in the early days of the crisis to last week’s virtual town hall with the Coronavirus Presidential task force in the Rose Garden, to transforming flagship programs across both linear networks to remote makeshift studios, we have remained nimble in an incredibly fast-paced environment.”
On April 2, Fox News Channel and Facebook co-hosted a town hall on the global pandemic using Portal from Facebook smart video calling devices for the first time ever, where it was announced that the network was making a joint donation of $1 million dollars to Feeding America for their COVID-19 Response Fund in efforts of helping those in need during this trying time. This was also Fox’s second donation this month towards a non-profit aiding in the coronavirus crisis.
It was announced on Thursday that the coronavirus has officially hit the 1 million mark globally in confirmed cases. As countries continue their efforts to stop the spread, those in the United States are urged to stay at home if it’s not necessary to be out. Flights in and out of airports are slowly but surely slowed down in numbers by the day as well. President Donald Trump recently announced he would be extending the social distancing practices through the end of April, but is hopeful things will get back to normal sooner rather than later.
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