How can office staff stay safe at work?

[nuttymomma]

My public sector organisation is all open plan offices and/or customer facing roles.

I have no idea how we are all going to return to work and do our jobs. The customer facing staff have to actually assist the customers so screens won't help. Some of them are out and about in the community as well eg schools.

We hot desk and desks are tiny and next to each other. We have open plan kitchen areas. We share our buildings with other companies also so 6 floors at HQ for example with about 8 companies within it.

How are any of these businesses going to keep their staff safe?

Some departments could maybe work from home, most can't.

I think this may be the beginning of the end for hot desking.

I hope so. I never liked it.

But we still have to sit almost on top of each other.

Canteen would be closed. Capacity would be reduced so people only sit at every other desk. When dealing with public, make best effort to keep 2m and uses gloves and mask if not possible. Soap and sanitizer provided and easily available.

There's many places that can't open exactly the same as before, but that doesn't mean they couldn't open at all.

Also, nothing is safe. Working in an office wasn't safe before. Commuting isn't safe. You could catch meningitis or norovirus or any number of other horrible diseases from your colleagues. Stress and anxiety kill people through suicide or self medication by alcohol etc. Step out the door and you're exposed to traffic fumes. Eat bacon and your cancer risk goes up.

The goal has to be to reduce Coronavirus to a level of risk that is proportionate with the risk everyone was willing to accept before.

We have worked out that if we impose safe social distancing, we can only use about 25% of the desks. There is talk of a rota so people go in one day a week. There is talk about working morning/afternoon shifts. But then you have the problem that the whole thing needs to be coordinated so that two adjacent desks don't end up being used at the same time, and/or any shared desks and equipment are fully cleaned between users.

Then you have the problem of lifts, everyone passing through reception at the same time in the morning on the way in, toilets... which lead some of us to conclude we'll be working at home for a very long time!

It took a while but in our public sector office now we sit further apart from each other and maintain the distance as best we can during the day .

We are not allowed to share the single lift or pass on the stairs which makes it a bit of a challenge getting to the top floor though. We have more and more people working from home where previously it was never a possibility . It may well become a permanent fixture and those who are doing it report no big problems aparts from not feeling part of the 'team' .

Meanwhile the cleaning routine has been tightened up with a cleaner present all day just touring the building and wiping as he goes. I think I feel as safe at work as I do at home since everyone is vigilant for breaches of social distancing or hygiene .

I never even considered the lifts!

I think working from home will be the best way forward and some kind of rota for the customer facing roles.

I cannot see social distancing working especially when you are out and about visiting clients, or having them coming into the office all the time for appointments.

I am picturing one office of ours in particular that is insanely crammed full of staff.

Everyone might have to start wearing proper medical masks like they do in the hospital wards. It's the only way things could get back to a bit more 'normal'. You could wear gloves and a mask and be protected.

Would there be enough masks? Especially as you'd need to change them regularly I think?

I'm sure the government said it would be a difficult thing to provide.

I can't see it working or people doing it. How would it be enforced?

More likely they will say public transport or similar, like Germany are advising.

I hope it’s the end for hotdesking. I bloody hate having to get in half an hour early so I can get a desk.

I can’t imagine how distancing would work with lifts either. Or toilets. Or the canteen.

I don't think there are enough masks at the moment - but in the future they could manufacture them and make it compulsory if we don't get a vaccine - it would get the economy moving again and would work out cheaper than everyone being on furlough.

My company is looking at this at the moment. About 500 people in an office in central London and about that again over three regional offices. We’re thinking maybe one week on one off with every other desk taped off. Biggest issue I can see for us is the loos, we can shut the kitchen pretty easily. I’d be pretty relaxed about the risk actually in the office but I’d be tense on the train I think.

Actually the lifts would be tricky also. It’s going to be hard certainly.

We’ve just had a survey come round about returning to work, whether we want to, how we would be happy etc. I have to admit I took it the wrong way. We are central london, I am 26 weeks pregnant and felt like they were planning to get people back next week. I think reopening a central london office in coming weeks is daft, how can we go from zero contact to maximum contact (ie public transport) overnight? I think for me this is the biggest issue and don’t know how they address it. However, I do have colleagues that haven’t got a decent home working setup and hearing some of the above and some other posts, I can see it would be beneficial for them to be able to return. Unfortunately for me, at 26 weeks and living a 2 hour commute away, I can’t see I’ll feel happy with the risk before I go on maternity leave. I can work more than fine from home, have an office, decent setup and can be contacted at any point of the day by the team. But others struggle, I get that so will be interesting what the company says and does and timing of it

In my work every 2nd desk can't be used. And we can't sit opposite someone either. So a bank of 6 desks would have 2 people on one side with a free desk in the middle of them and the opposite side someone would sit in the middle seat. If anything there is no more hot desking as there's not enough seats to go around.
There's an increase in cleaning and the desks are deep cleaned nightly. Everyone is also giving their desks a clean at the start and the end of their shift.
You can only have 1 person in the lifts at one time and they've sorted out a queuing system. The lifts actually move quicker now.
They're also opened up one set of fire escape stairs which must only be used for going down them and the mail set of stairs can be used for going up.
They've closed all communal seating areas which means people are allowed to eat at their desks.
The canteen and reception both have plastic screens up as well.
On the whole my work has dealt really well with it.

I like the idea of a staff survey although everyone could have different opinions.

We’re certainly trying at our place not to be too dictatorial about it. If people are nervous or happy (and productive) at home then that’s fine, it frees up more desk space in the office.

what do we all think of the news reports about the return to work plans?

Will it work? Is it enough? Will businesses do what they are told?