Have you worked in an office setting since last March?

[AnxietyDrivingMyLife]

Has there been many cases in you place of work? If no - is it mainly due to wearing masks?

No cases, we are in "bubbles" of 2 -3 people. They have utilised board room, sick room and canteen as well as boss and 2 other "single" offices to facilitate bubbles. Most of our work can't be done from home.
Masks to be worn in corridor, communal areas like kitchen closed. no mingling outside your bubbles on work premises. Anti virus spray for entrance area, hall way and WC regularly.
No issues so far, we are all adults. I think it would be a disciplinary if one didn't adhere to the guidelines.
Plus, I work in the food supply chain, hygiene, even for office staff, is essential.

Yes I've worked in one constantly all through tha pandemic. We have 30ish staff. We have managed to spread out so most of us are in a room by ourselves with only the big rooms having 2 people in and then they are as far away from each other as possible. A window in each room is open and we wear masks when someone comes to talk to us or we move about the building. We had an outbreak of 5 people all testing positive in a 2 day window. Not exactly sure how.

No, nearly all wfh.

There's a baked in fallacy there.

Masks don't PREVENT covid transmission.

The extent to which they REDUCE it is uncertain - extremely difficult to measure, but it's likely to be somewhere between 10% and 50% - I suspect it's likely to be at the lower end of that range. But even a mere 10% is the difference between thousands of deaths over time

NB Masks have also been demonstrated to reduce the SEVERITY of the disease - no surprise there as if they reduce the initial viral load, the immune system has more time to respond.

www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02801-8

I work for the nhs in a community nursing team. WeCannot socially distance, no one works from much due to the type of work. We've had no confirmed cases and we have people Coming and go all
Day long. We do wear masks with patients but only a few wear them around the office.

Yes - been in the office since last June - no cases. We do socially distance as much as possible and wear masks if not at our desks, but otherwise it's BAU. It's a small office so only about 20-30 people in total & happily no known cases or even anyone who has had to self isolate.

Yes, we’ve had staff in since last spring. We have a ‘COVID safe’ building and working practices in place to ensure we maintain social distances, masks in communal areas, common areas closed to reduce social transmission, hand sanitising etc and rotas to manage numbers on site. We’ve had staff cases (community acquired) but no workplace transmission. I feel safe at work.

Yes, since June. No cases and only one self-isolation. We are a small team and have strict protocols in place. Some staff are working from home and we've had staggered working hours to reduce the number of people in the building at any one time.

Yes. I’ve been in since September. Colleagues were in on a rota basis from June onwards.

There have been no cases. We don’t wear masks but do remain 2 metres apart.

Never left except for mat leave. We've had three confirmed cases and a few scares. Not due to the mask, either. One caught it while in hospital for a broken arm, the other at her other job, the third we're not sure but not at the office as no one else had it at the same time.
I should mention I'm not british or living in the UK.

Yes constantly since March . Only 2 people to a bank of desks. No desk sharing , communal areas taped off . No standing chatting . Masks when away from desk. Constant cleaning . More recently regular flow tests . We had an influx of temporary staff but after an initial flurry of cases we have had none for months. Many staff now WFH but initially about 500 in and less than 20 cases. After any reported case there was a full deep clean of the floor.

Yes but with very high level of covid measures.

Think it is disgusting how many people have been forced to work in unmitigated environments.

We've been in the office for most of the year. Numbers in the building have been controlled and most people work from home. Hot desking has been banned, meeting rooms closed and a desk cleaning regime introduced.

We only 2 cases between March and November. Another 4 in the second wave. None were transmitted through work and I think only 2 of the positive cases actually came into the office and caused people to self isolate.

I work in a school office. We have a wonderful maintenance team who have hand built us screens for our desks. It’s a box of sorts with Perspex to protect us. We wear masks and socially distance when around the school. The staff room has had tables and chairs removed. Sanitiser and wipes located in several places.
So far as far as I’m aware, no one has caught it at our work. Pupils haven’t either.

Yes, on a rota so no more than 3/4 at a time. Masks, sanitiser and social distancing. Half a dozen cases inc a hospitalisation. Lateral flow tests since January and no new cases since December.

Yes. I worked one day a week in the office over the summer and into the autumn. I stopped when the November lockdown came in and haven’t been back until today, when I need to go in to do something I can’t do at home.

No cases in my workplace at all that I’m aware of.

DH works in a large building employing thousands. Consequently it's a major local employer and we know many who work there. Some have to be in 100% if the time, others 20-50%. We've heard of a couple of positives cases, but no transmission through work.

I work in a school and there's cases of known transmission there.

Obviously transmission can happen anywhere, but DH's work feels a lot safer than mine.

Yes, 1 confirmed case which came from school not work - and importantly didn't get transmitted onwards at work.

Masks, eye protection, cleaning 4x daily, distancing and a general feeling of respect for each others various boundaries. I don't think masks alone would do it. There have been outbreaks in other departments - we are viewed as a bit "extra" with our measures - but it works 🤷‍♀️

The evidence from public health officials advising my company is that track & trace shows the majority of transmission is through social mixing in informal settings and people not following distancing guidance on eg smoking breaks where there have been workplace cases.

Yes, every day since this shitstorm began.

2 cases in January this year. Me and the guy I caught it off. Nobody else got it.

Oh and we don't wear masks in the office. The person I caught it off goes into 4/5 different houses each day for his job which is likely where he caught it.

Been back at work since last June. I don’t agree that we should be there as my job can be done at home. We are in bubbles and wear masks and all clean and wipe constantly. We’ve had a few small outbreaks.

DH has been working in the office throughout although with a much reduced staff - many are WFH. He's in a large building with lots of office space and open areas so plenty of room for distancing. He doesn't wear a mask unless he is going to speak to someone. When clients were allowed in the building (mainly last Summer but a few during lockdown as they are allowed to be open) they were subject to temperature checks and intensive questioning about their contact history in the previous weeks. All staff were warned that a very dim view would be taken of anyone found to be breaking Covid rules outside of work and anyone who went on holiday abroad last summer ( booked before pandemic) had to work from home for 2 weeks afterwards. They have had no cases.

I’m in an educational setting. Huge office of about 50 staff. In on a rota basis. Masks in communal areas, socially distanced seating, sanitising of equipment. About 25% have had it.

DH has constantly. Until November he shared an office daily, with 1 or 2 people. They shifted the desks by a couple of inches. So they were 2m apart, although they were still sharing equipment.
No one in his department has had a confirmed case (30 of them)
(Their job was coordinating part of Covid response as well as their normal role. More people WFH now as they have more secure laptops. )