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Stripe temporarily closed its Seattle engineering office for two days in February 2020 after learning that a visiting employee from Singapore had been in contact, before arriving in the United States, with someone later diagnosed with coronavirus. Stripe said at the time that no employees had been diagnosed or were showing symptoms. It asked staff in Seattle and Singapore to work from home while the offices were cleaned and sanitized.
Why did Stripe close its Seattle office?
The reported contact took place before a Stripe employee visiting from Singapore arrived in the United States. The person the employee had been in contact with was later diagnosed with coronavirus disease, then commonly referred to as COVID-19. GeekWire reported the incident on February 14, 2020, after Stripe confirmed the temporary closure in response to the outlet’s inquiry.
Stripe treated the closure as a precaution. The company’s engineering office was in Madison Centre at 920 5th Ave. in downtown Seattle. GeekWire described the engineering center as having hundreds of employees.
What did Stripe say and do?
An unnamed Stripe spokesperson told GeekWire: “There are no Stripe employees who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, or that are showing any symptoms of it.” That statement described the company’s position at the time; it does not establish employee health status after the report.
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Stripe asked Seattle and Singapore employees to work from home until the following week while it cleaned and sanitized both offices. GeekWire also reported that the company was coordinating with King County Department of Health, building management, and others.
How did the February closure differ from Stripe’s later pandemic response?
The two-day Seattle and Singapore closures were a local response to the reported exposure. Stripe’s subsequent March measures were broader and changed as the pandemic situation evolved.
- March 2, 2020: Stripe published a COVID-19 precautions update describing a phased work-from-home policy, a pause in global business travel, and suspension of office visits.
- March 11, 2020: Stripe updated the post to say it had closed its San Francisco office and planned to close additional offices, including Seattle, in the following days.
- March 18, 2020: Stripe reported that all its offices were closed and employees and on-site contractors were working from home.
The February action was therefore a short, office-specific precaution—not the same event as the later company-wide office closures.
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Sources
- GeekWire’s February 14, 2020 report, by Todd Bishop, on the Seattle and Singapore office closures.
- Stripe’s COVID-19 precautions post, published March 2 and updated March 11 and March 18, 2020.
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