- Google campus in Chelsea, New York, was infested with bedbugs
- Employees must work from home until cleared
- The infestation appears to have been eliminated – for now
A bedbug infestation forced employees at Google’s Chelsea, New York, campus to work from home while the building was cleaned.
A report of Wired claims campus employees were informed via email that “credible evidence” of a possible bedbug infestation had been discovered in the building and that they were asked to stay home so the location could be treated.
Exterminators were quickly called in and the campus was apparently cleaned and debugged before the start of the next work day.
Escape
The email, obtained by Wired and apparently sent to all employees in New York, claimed that Google had asked its employees to file a report if they had symptoms of bed bug bites or saw evidence of bed bugs on site.
Anyone finding bedbugs in their home was also asked to contact professional exterminators.
The publication also claimed that its sources said the infestation may have been caused by “a number of large stuffed animals” at Google’s offices – although it was unable to confirm this.
Google is also conducting additional checks at its other offices in New York, including its Hudson Square campus, “out of an abundance of caution,” the email added.
The news comes shortly after Google confirmed it would reduce staff’s permission to work remotely, revealing new limits to its “work from anywhere” (WFA) policy.
These changes will mean that Google employees will no longer be able to work from another destination, for example when traveling, as easily as before – since they were allowed to work from their destination of choice for up to four weeks a year, which would allow them to spend more time on vacation or extend their seasonal holiday stays.
Workers will also not be allowed to use WFA benefits to work from or near home, the company said, as the “legal and financial implications of working across borders” have also made working abroad prohibited.
