Forest fires are burning right now. It destroyed a large area of Los Angeles.It burned more than 45 square miles, burned more than 1,300 structures and forced the evacuation of nearly 180,000 people as of Thursday. However, TikTok's LA-based employees have been instructed to continue working from home or use their personal/sick days if not possible, and the company's LA office continues to experience power outages due to strong winds.
Already, the Palisades Fire is so close to the TikTok office that smoke can be seen through the windows. But the Culver City-based office itself. No mandatory evacuation orders were issued. At this time, the fire Due to the strong winds and related problems, many employees' homes were affected and many employees' homes were affected.
TikTok's local employees travel from around the greater LA area—some even commute to work—and most of their homes are currently without power. We understand from staff sources at TikTok that there is no Wi-Fi or both. Some may even be ordering evacuations themselves (although we have not directly confirmed this at this time).
Unfortunately for employees facing this massive natural disaster, TikTok is telling them to use their personal or sick time for the days they need to take time off due to these circumstances.
In a letter sent to LA employees by TikTok leadership, the company informed employees that the LA office will be closed on January 8th and will remain closed until January 12th, as the fire continues to burn in the area and the office is out. Closed days are taken as opposed to holidays from work, unless otherwise decided by the individual team leader.
In a message, An HR representative shared links to other company resources, including a Mental Wellbeing Portal for fire victims, a way to sign up for free mental health seminars; Lyraand a link to TikTok's “PSSL” policy. The latter refers to TikTok's paid sick and safe leave program — essentially sick time and personal days.
TikTok's LA employees have 15 PTO (paid time off/holiday) as well as 10 paid sick/personal leave (PSSL) days per year if they were hired before June. TikTok's strict back-to-office policy requires employees to be away from the office at least three days per week, so these sick/personal days are highly coveted. (Days of the week are chosen by the team and cannot be exchanged for other days if necessary.)
This means that if an employee is sick, like a simple cold or flu, and they don't want to spread their illness to coworkers, they have the option to stay home. However, they are required to be in the office three days a week, so they use their PSSL hours and work from home on sick days (no days off instead of being allowed to work). without paying a fine from home).
This week, TikTok's LA employees can't work from home due to power or Wi-Fi outages, or if they're ordered to evacuate (unless they've given time to their entire team, the fire has already taken a toll.) That leaves them to use a few days later in the year, like staying at home to take care of a sick child in the event of an actual illness or other personal emergency. If they do not have enough PSSL hours. We understand that they can borrow from next year or use their PTO time.
Employees who can work from home will have to log into their “My RTO” portal, manage their sick time and change from their job to “disaster” to avoid being penalized. However, this will not deduct their PSSL hours.
At the same time, TikTok's PSSL policy document does not specifically state that time can be used for natural disasters such as these massive wildfires.
Instead, Employees may use the time off for a physical or mental health condition, to care for a family member with a medical condition, or if the office is closed by “order of public officials” for public health reasons. infected person An emergency, including exposure to a biological toxin or hazardous material. (For example, while smoke in the area may be hazardous, not every TikTok LA employee is exposed to poor air quality as enforced by public officials.)
In many of the internal messages shared with us, employees report that their homes are without electricity or that their entire city is without power. (Some news reports. About 4 million people are without power. until yesterday due to forest fire). Some employees are worried about how bad their air quality will get. Others worry about using up their precious battery power or generator fuel to work at home because they don't know how long the power outage will last.
Because TikTok is under pressure. The upcoming ban in the USIt may already be affecting the mental health and stress levels of US workers; Being told to carry on through a disaster of this magnitude has become a little deafening. In fact, Some of the internal letters reviewed by TechCrunch have a “business-as-usual” feel to them, despite the scale of the disaster. For example, the messages state that a leader has contacted a non-powerful employee for a status update on some of their work.
Employees are told to contact the EAP (Employee Assistance Program) or their HR representative if they are told they need to evacuate. There is a strong message from leaders that employees should put their safety and health first, but asking employees to worry about using personal days if they can't work from home seems to counter that narrative.
TikTok was reached for comment but did not receive a response ahead of publication.
Sarah Perez can be reached by email at sarahp@techcrunch.com or @sarahperez.01 on Signal.