Dear friends,
It has become clear over the last week that many of us around the world will become infected with covid-19, and thankfully many of us can and will recover from covid-19. The younger and healthier of us should recover swiftly, however the elderly and more vulnerable are at much greater risk.
Countries such as South Korea who have swiftly put in place social distancing measures have slowed the spread of covid-19 to a point where health facilities have been able to properly care for those most ill as a result of the virus. This is in contrast to countries such as Italy, where they were slow to react and as a result the virus spread quickly and has overwhelmed their health system.
Australia is still early on in the spread of the virus, and we now have the ability to shape our experience of covid-19. If we act early and decisively, we can slow the spread and ensure our health facilities have the capacity to care for those who become critically ill.
Out of love and care for you and our staff; and to live up to our shared responsibility to our communities we are instating a mandatory work from home policy effective immediately and running for a minimum of 14 days, and have asked our staff to be prepared to be working from home until at least the end of April.
I have instructed the team that for the next 14 days, there is to be zero travel to our office, client sites or other locations without first discussing it with myself, or another director.
I strongly encourage your respective organisation’s to put in place similar policies for the sake of your people and communities too.
Early social distancing is key to slowing the spread and giving our health system the best chance to support our community through this crisis. We do not need to wait for government permission or instruction when it is already clear what the right thing to do is.
Off the back of a successful “remote first week” last week, we have put in place a new operating rhythm to ensure TypeHuman remains effective in our ability to deliver for you during this time.
This means that there should be very little difference for you in how we work together - rather than appearing in person, we will be interacting via Zoom or your preferred video call.
Unless something else has been organised, we are going to assume that all existing meetings will proceed albeit being held via Zoom / phone call rather than being in-person.
We want to be here for our staff, our friends (like yourself!), and our community during this tricky period, so please reach out and let me know how else we can support you and work together.
All our best,
Nick Byrne, Managing Director nick@typehuman.com