mikebor

Um No they are not all working from home. As recently as Thursday my Ambassador was in the Omaha office working there with other Ambassadors. Please don't give wrong information.

SPN Lifer

Outrage is a favored emotion on FlyerTalk.

To wit, this insightful comment pointing out the FlyerTalk tendency toward hair-trigger outrage:
It is, through very selective editing, transformed into the misguided target of a vicious attack on outrage (!) :
Outrageous.

Seriously, though, Newman does owe khabah an apology. They are both on the same, even-keeled page.

writerguyfl

This. I used to work in a travel call center. We had a few teams of work-from-home agents. It's not as simple as most people imagine. You can't just let employees use any random computer connected to the internet.

The home computer must meet minimum technical specs. Since employees would be connecting to the corporate server, there are security issues at play. Additionally, every employee would need a high quality phone and/or headset. (Where I worked, those were worth about $150 each.) All of this had to be set up by a company IT employee at the work-at-home agent's home.

Security was always the biggest hurdle. Just imagine how much worse off (financially and reputationally) a hotel company would be if their customer database got hacked because a work-at-home agent inadvertently allowed malware on their home PC to infiltrate the corporate server.

Chewie

I will amend my statement. Not all Ambassadors work in the office , many (not all) work from home. My apologies for any inconvenience.

Did you ask your ambassador if they are currently working from home?

mikebor

Last Thursday she was in the Omaha office. It is still open. There is 1 other US office still open along with Omaha that Ambassadors work from. Again, I wouldn't have started this thread if all the US Ambassador offices were already closed. There are always the same posters on flyertalk that hijack every thread and make fun of the situation and think they are funny and make jokes but I feel it is a serious situation. To me Marriott should close its last 2 Ambassador offices until further notice. And us Ambassador members will have to live(sarcasm) with just dealing with random ones working from home. Not many are traveling anyways so it shouldn't be a big deal. The health of the Ambassadors that have to STILL come into work every day when almost the whole country is under a stay at home order should be Marriott's top priority.

Oh and I wasn't meaning you chewie who come in and hijack the threads and make nasty remarks. I've seen it in multiple threads recently the same few people offering nothing but being nasty. But not meaning you.

UKTraveller4Fun

I am still wondering why you focus on Ambassadors only, surely you apply this to all Marriott staff and pretty much any staff that work in offices and call centres worldwide. If those Ambassadors are able to continue earning a living in what has been made into a an environment consistent with the best social distancing policies do you believe you are certain they would be better off long term at home? Are you aware of their circumstances and the consequences for them should they be furloughed?

mikebor

Why are you wondering? I am focused on the 2 Ambassador offices because those are the only 2 Marriott offices of any kind that I know are open. I believe the corporate offices are closed, reservation centers are closed and most are working from home. So to me it seems a little or a lot irresponsible that Marriott would choose to only leave open in the US its 2 Ambassador offices in states that don't have a stay at home order. Of course I don't want them to get furloughed or lose their jobs but you have to think some could set up from home. And in all honesty, with almost NO offices in any industry open nationwide the health and safety of those men and women should be a top priority. And I don't believe(even with some social distancing measures in place) that having those Ambassadors drive into work, touch door handles and desks and phones and be close interacting with other colleagues is keeping them safe from contacting this awful virus.

So you wanna disagree that's fine but I think it is a legit issue and it is worrisome to me. I think it's irresponsible on Marriott's part.

writerguyfl

FYI: This is not a true statement...particularly in the case of Nebraska. As I understand it, the Governor has not required that any businesses (essential or non-essential) be closed. It seems that as long as it's 10 people or less, you can do anything except eat in a restaurant dining room or have elective surgery.
Source (updated on 4/6/20): https://www.aarp.org/politics-societ...trictions.html

Just today, Governor Rickets advised residents to "Stay Home, Stay Healthy, and Stay Connected." But, you have to look past the slogan. If you interpret it as a "Stay-at-Home" order, you'd be wrong. Here's the text from the media release distributed Monday, April 6th in the afternoon (emphasis mine):

The Governor noted that the next month will be a decisive stage of the war against the coronavirus. He urged Nebraskans to “stay home, stay healthy, and stay connected” over the coming weeks. Everyone should work, go home, and shop once a week.
Source: https://governor.nebraska.gov/press/...stay-connected

For the record, I'm not saying I agree with the way Nebraska's Governor is handling this crisis. But, I think it's worth noting that lockdown that many of us have been experiencing for several weeks isn't happening in every community across the nation.

Finally, the fact that local/state/federal government hasn't closed business offices doesn't mean that individual companies can't do that on their own. So please don't take this post as an attempt to discredit your belief that Marriott is acting irresponsibly.

UKTraveller4Fun

I assume these offices are not necessarily just housing Ambassadors at the moment and actually the staff there are dealing with queries across all levels of Marriott Bonvoy. Working from home is not something that is as simple as may sound for many companies or indeed employees, it is assuming they have the correct equipment at home and the company has the infrastructure to enable it and I know for a fact Marriott outside of the USA does not and from everything I hear inside the USA they also have issues in regards this some more than others. Based on that it is very much a decision of they work in the office or get furloughed which I believe is with very reduced or no pay. This goes back to my position that if Marriott have put in place good distancing measures it very well maybe more beneficial for these people to come to work than actually be sent home without pay.

In an ideal world everyone would work from home and there would be no risk to anyone and everyone gets paid, but we do not live in such a world and actually loss of pay could be far more dangerous to many people than staying at home without pay. As I mentioned before if Marriott are forcing people to come to work who would prefer to opt to be furloughed or forcing people to work in the office who could do their jobs from home I very much this Marriott are in the wrong, but if those things are not the case which you have demonstrated no evidence of either apart from your opinion / guess then it is my opinion that I won't second guess what is better for the Ambassadors involved and allow them to make their own choices on this as in the current climate it would be very easy for them to make the national press know they are unhappy, but to them maybe the current situation they have is preferable to the other options there are. We simply share different viewpoints on this based on the data we each have available to us.

coolfish1103

To be honest I think it's none of your business, you are not them. Maybe the Ambassador is grateful he/she can come to work rather than getting furloughed.

If you believe there is a necessity, tell the governor to lock everything down. Don't throw everything to the business when the government itself is not doing anything.

Though, even if everything is locked down, I would think hotel qualifies as an essential service and some of these people will still have to come to work.

Chewie

I will make one slight counter argument, however, it is based on best practices.

As a microbiologist, I have been consulting with a number of firms that must remain open. The companies have a skeleton crew still working in the office environment, however, they are all working in closed offices (where available) or cubicles that are further than 6’ apart.

The office environment and common areas are also decontaminated by fogging with a vaporized hydrogen peroxide and many places are running hepa filtered air purifiers 24/7 as well.

Perfect? No. But with enough safeguards and proper precautions in place, it can be a very safe environment to work. Is it better than being home, that can be debated, depending on personal diligence.

MSPeconomist

It sounds like Ambassadors in states that have work from home orders were furloughed while those in the two offices in states that don't yet have work from home, stay at home, or shelter in place orders so far have kept their jobs. This is regardless of the individual Ambassador's level of customer service, skill, or experience.

UKTraveller4Fun

Which would fit the theory that Marriott simply don't have the technological ability to let call centre staff work at home!

MSPeconomist

Yeah, but what happens when Kansas and Nebraska or whatever states issue stay at home/work from home/shelter in place orders? Does the Ambassador program end totally then? And in the meantime, is Marriott/Bonvoy completely incapable of answering any customer service phone calls, including calls attempting to make reservations or solve problems regarding IT or points and nights credit?

UKTraveller4Fun

There are Ambassador services still operating outside of the US, in fact generally I would say the outside US ones I found to give far better service than the US ones when I get diverted there. In regards what will happen, well wait times on calls will increase and get worse and this will be down tot he fact Marriott has never invested in an IT ssytem capable of enabling large volume work from home. It could be said this situation was not predicatible and to be fair many companies (inlcuding financial institutions world wide) are suffering similar issues. We live in a world that simply has not been designed for the situation we currently face. Equally my personal opinion is Marriott has been very slow in investing some very large profits over the years back into the IT backbone of the company and decided instead to pocket the profits and that blame very much lies at the top of Marriott.