News & Politics

The Washington Post Cancels Nonessential Travel Over Coronavirus Concerns

Photograph by Evy Mages
Coronavirus 2020

About Coronavirus 2020

Washingtonian is keeping you up to date on the coronavirus around DC.

The Washington Post has canceled nonessential business travel in March for its employees over concerns about the coronavirus, or Covid-19. Vice-president of human resources Wayne Connell informed employees about the policy in a memo Tuesday afternoon.

Employees at Amazon, another concern run by Post owner Jeff Bezos, have already been instructed not to travel, the New York Times reported late last month.

Connell asked Post employees to talk to their managers and HR about their personal travel plans, as well. Washingtonian has asked the Post what might count as nonessential business travel in the newsroom, and we’ll update this post when we hear back.

Full memo:

To All Post Employees & Contractors,

Out of an abundance of caution and effective immediately: we are canceling all non-essential business travel for the rest of March. If you are unsure whether any planned business travel is non-essential, please talk with your manager, your department’s VP, and HR. If you have personal travel planned, please let your manager and HR know where you are going and when. Depending on how the virus spreads, you could be subject to the CDC-recommended quarantine period, currently 14 days. Additionally, please follow all government advisories and take appropriate precautions.

We continue to closely monitor the coronavirus as it develops and encourage you to do the same. We will keep you posted as things change. As questions arise, feel free to send them to me, Tracy Grant, or Gregg Fernandes.

Many thanks,
Wayne

Senior editor

Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.