As the state and national responses to the outbreak of the new coronavirus develop, employees for the Springfield-based Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. have been told to work from home beginning March 16 if they are able to do so, according to a company official and a message sent Thursday by chairman and CEO Roger Crandall.
“Earlier today, we did ask all of our employees who have the ability to work remotely to do so beginning Monday,” said Laura Crisco, MassMutual’s head of media relations.
The company has about 3,500 employees in Springfield, 1,500 in Enfield and about 500 in Boston.
For the past week thousands of employees have already been working from home without any disruption to the company’s day-to-day operations, Crandall said in his email. While there will be a limited number of essential staff still working at the Springfield office the majority of employees will not be accessing the building until further notice.
“We had already previously canceled non-essential domestic and international business travel and large-scale events, proactively tested our work from home capabilities, restricted non-essential guests at our facilities and enhanced our cleaning protocols at our office, all of which continue,” Crisco said.
Employees will be allowed to work from home starting Friday. There is no timeline as to when they will be able to return to the building.
“This is our latest effort to reduce the potential spread of this virus, protect the health of our employees, their families, and our community and assure the continuity of our business operations,” she said. “We continue to monitor this evolving situation, will adjust our approach as needed and continue to stay in close communication with our employees.”
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