Coronavirus update for business: Zoom sued, Jack Dorsey donates 28% of his wealth, and are workers slacking?
Twitter boss Jack Dorsey has pledged to donate US$1 billion, Zoom is facing a class action, and are remote workers slacking off?
Zooming to court
Eric Yuan has made $4 billion over the last three months, but he’s now zooming towards a hefty legal bill after shareholder Michael Drieu filed a class-action lawsuit against the video conferencing company.
Yuan’s Zoom Video Communications Inc has been accused of overstating its privacy standards and failing to disclose that its service was not end-to-end encrypted, SBS reports.
It comes after Zoom last week apologised to users after reports emerged of conference calls being raided in recent weeks, a phenomenon which quickly became known as “zoombombing”.
Dorsey donates US$1 billion
Twitter boss Jack Dorsey has pledged to donate US$1 billion ($1.6 billion) to fight the coronavirus outbreak, which is the largest contribution by any private individual yet during the pandemic, equaling about a quarter of his fortune.
He’s doing it through his equity in Square, transferring the wealth to a firm called Start Small LLC, which has promised to be transparent and has started a Google document detailing its donations.
Mental health support
Mental health charity Beyond Blue has launched a new website dedicated to mental health support during the coronavirus crisis, including a section dedicated to support for small business owners.
The resource has advice on managing your personal wellbeing at what is a particularly stressful time for small business owners, and advice on how to support employees with their own mental health. Have a browse, and remember to look after yourselves.
Working hard or hardly working?
New research from Zoom and Asana shows that Aussies harbour negative feelings towards working from home, tending to assume their colleagues are slacking off if they’re not in the office.
Before COVID-19 struck, about 47% of respondents had never worked remotely, The Australian reports, while 17% worked remotely one or two days a week.
A quarter said missing out on face-to-face interaction was a big factor in them choosing to go to the office.
Sure, we may be sceptical of those ‘working from home’ after a big night down the boozer, but this research was done just before COVID-19 saw offices all over the country closing, and remote working becoming the norm.
It may be interesting to see if a few minds have been changed in the meantime.
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