First many of us transition to WFH and the changes that brought. Now - and perhaps over the next several weeks or months, many of us will head back to the workplace. The workplace for some will continue to be at home.
In particular for those who have returned to work or are returning to work, what has changed in your physical environment at work or your task related duties??
I return full time next week. Have been going in a day or two the last few weeks. I’m on a hospital campus so mandatory temperature checks and masks unless you’re in an office space alone. Elevators are marked with circles you should stand on - no more than 4 at a time.
I hesitate to take the stairs because that seems more awkward to avoid others without being in close distance.
Found out today that our national conference for my organization May 2021 will be virtual. Hard to gear up for a conference online! Most people can’t focus/hold attention for more than 2 hours so the “conference” will probably be 2-3 sessions a week for perhaps 2 weeks with a 2 hour session in the morning (with a 15 minute break) and then a 1 hour afternoon small group option. No travel costs of course - not sure if that’s a positive! So much in person networking will be lost.
Haven’t navigated the workplace cafeteria, gift shop or coffee shop yet - not even sure if they are open! That’s another thing - not keeping my lunch in the refrigerator - keep it in my office, eat in my office and am thinking about getting my own coffee maker for my office.
Noticing what bathrooms people are using - and choosing the one least visited!
Happydad went back to work last week. He’s in biotech. He lost his cubicle, and now has an “office” space and a “here’s where you eat lunch” space in his lab. I honestly don’t know how that works. I gather that whatever it is he’s up to in the lab (company secret) is something that won’t affect what he eats and eating won’t affect the lab work. There was a staged return as each person had to be instructed separately on which spaces were for what. He’s going in earlier than he used to so he can arrive with fewer people. He’s always taken his lunch with a cooler pack, so that isn’t a problem, but he does miss popping by the building cafeteria for coffee or a soda.
I teach adult ed. and pre-academic ESL at a community college. We will be remote until at least January. I’m currently attending a national conference for adult ed. that runs for parts of this week and next. All of the sessions are webinar format and are being recorded. If I am bored to tears with a session that I chose, no one will see or care if I exit, and I can watch the thing later when I’m more in the mood for it. I count that as a definite win! There is a reasonable amount of interaction between the presenters and attendees in the chat, and in at least one session people could un-mute and ask questions in Zoom. Meetings are going to be different for a while, but people who want to network will figure out ways to make that happen. By the time your conference rolls around in 2021 @abasket , you probably will be a competent remote networker, if not yet an excellent one.
When I worked in a multistory office building, very few people took the stairs. Proximity to any specific other person in the stairwell was much less in duration than when waiting for or in an elevator.
Current employer and most of the industry in the area seem to be conveying the expectation that employees working from home to the greatest extent possible will continue for quite a while.
Currently I am handing in plans to the security guard who delivers them to the building department. Clients are seeing me again. We all wear masks. (Though I was really cross at one that did for the first meeting and didn’t for the second.) I’m trying not to do too many interior jobs, but I have old clients I like who it’s hard to say no too - especially things that we started working on last year and got put on hold.
DH works at a medical school. They have sign up times for lab space to make sure they aren’t too crowded. He has to take his temperature both at home and then they take it when he arrives and he gets a sticker. He also has to fill out a questionnaire every day. It now asks if he’s been to any of the states that NY has put on the quarantine list. All meetings are via zoom and there sure seem to be a lot of them. He does most of them at home unless he’s already at the lab.
DH has been working in his office all along…one of 6 people at his company who has been there (out of about 150). A couple of weeks ago, they started a phase in for the WFH folks. DHs team comes on one time a week…and then WFH the rest of the time.
The company has excellent cleaning protocol in place, and has provided masks to all employees, as well as hand sanitizer in the workspaces. They also have restricted travel for both business and pleasure unless approved by the company. No public transportation allowed for business travel right now, so if you can’t get there in a car, you can’t go. Most of their work is within a drive away. Not sure they really can enforce the travel for pleasure, but they can ask those folks to WFH completely for a couple of weeks.
H’s company - anyone who can is working from home until at least Labor Day and then it’s going to be only part time in the office. No commercial flights and travel must be deemed absolutely necessary to be approved. For those who can’t work from home - increased sanitization of the facility, purell stations everywhere, mask wearing, de-densifying, split shifts, different entrances, no cafeteria, socially distanced break spaces, contact tracing if anyone is sick, etc…
D’s company - daily temp checks plus everything that H’s company is doing for those who can’t work from home.
My office - no outside shoes, social distanced waiting area and treatment rooms, hand sanitizing protocols for patients and staff, locked outer door to control flow, enhanced cleaning after each patient, masks, no walk ins, etc…
We re-opened our main office in mid May on totally voluntary basis. Divided office into teams who can be in the office every other week. So daily volume of people reduced by 50% but actual number of people who went in was significantly less than that. I went in twice just to see what it was like. Saw 5 people each day (2 were security guards and one was nurse taking my temp).
Have to wear masks if not in office with door closed. If you have an office with door, must be closed when you are in the office. No in person meetings (phone/video). Common areas where people would gather have pretty much been closed. No more than 2 people in elevators. I always take the steps anyway. Few people do that normally. Maybe a few more will now but I don’t ever expect the stairs to be crowded. Doors to stairwells are propped open to reduce touched surfaces (trade of in terms of security because stairwell doors needed keycard for access). Restrooms limited to 1 person at a time.
Limited flow of people/documents. Drop locations rather than mail being picked up and delivered throughout office.
Changes mean being in office is in many ways worse than working from home. Which we all pretty much can at this point. Most of the people who went in frequently either have small kids at home or lived alone.
We are expected to be in office starting next week. Still with two teams. Other limits are still in place. Increasing restroom capacity to 2. Will be interesting to see. Ultimately 1/2 people I work will every day won’t be there. Been 3 months without seeing people I work with every day (some for 20+ years). May be at least another couple months of that.
RE: the stairs thing, while I don’t encounter a person each time I climb or descent the 7 floors of stairs, when I DO it would be a problem. Not enough room to get six feet away unless one of you literally takes a floor exit door to get out of the way. True though that most likely if it’s workers they will be masked.
Re: an elevator - ours are marked for a max of 4 people. I personally will only get on if there is no more than one other person - I actually always ask the person on the elevator if they would prefer I wait for the next elevator. In our situation this is easily done.
Elevators and stairs likely vary by location. Although we have an old renovated building, the stairwells are wide with big landings. So if you did encounter another person it would be easy to stand in corner of landing and wait for them to pass. And everyone in the stairwell should be wearing masks. Our elevators are on the small side. So in our building, I prefer the stairs. But in different building with different set up, I may well prefer the elevator.
@abasket , if you will be climbing 7 stories in a mask you will be getting even fitter! I just got home from voting and the fourth floor of city hall seemed farther than it was pre-mask…
When I worked in a multistory office building, if I walked past someone in the stairwell, I would be within 6 feet of the other person for a few seconds at most. If I took the elevator, I would be within 6 feet of someone for longer than that.
The annoying thing about some of these office buildings was that they did not let anyone go up the stairs from the ground floor, so the crowds or lines at the elevator could be very large and slow.
My office is on the 11th floor and I used to do the stairs 1-2x/week. Then they closed off the doors into the stairs from the ground floor. I am going to suggest that they reopen them.
In addition, we got an email that said (among other things) that masks are available in all company locations. Not in ours . I bring one now when I go in (once a week for a few hours) and always keep a spare in my car so I’m good. But someone will forget (easy to do). I am already planning to bring that up. We are one of the smaller locations and I think we got overlooked.
My public building makes all visitors come in one door for a temp check. They are given a sticker and must wear a mask. Secretary stations have plastic shields in front of their desk. The cleaning crew uses a bleach solution on frequently touched surfaces but not as often as in the beginning. It was supposed to be every hour then.
Police also get their temps checked and recorded when they come in. The rest of us just wear our badges and get a pass. Employees do not have to (and rarely do) wear masks unless they interact with the public or are within 6 feet of a person. Since very few wear them, the 6 foot rule is often broken. I feel like the mask nazi a lot.
I wish that workplaces would take extra precautions as people return to work- like it’s ok to go a little overboard! Masks are not really overboard when people are walking around the office. We’ve already shown as a country in so many places that returning to some old routines without precautions isn’t working - let’s open work places up with more precautions and loosen them as time goes on - not the other way!
Interested in following this thread. I am a manager of a research study that is on hold currently, and we are all working from home until labor day. I am pretty sure I can have people go back in the office by staggering WFH/office time when and if we are allowed to start participant visits. I am hitting the wall in coming up with justifiable tasks that can be done from home for some staff (I have 3 phlebotomists!) So they don’t have to go unpaid. I work in a hospital setting and we have “redeployment” for staff with not enough work BUT the very ones light on work have immunosuppression and are afraid to be redeployed to screening tents.
Our workplace is changing drastically. We have a set of 2 large connected buildings housing over 1000 employees. We’ve been out since March 13, with just a few folks going in. We’ve done really well with work from home and won’t be going back until after Labor Day- and then we will rotate back in with probably no more than 25% of the workforce there at one time.
We have added large video screens in all conference rooms and VP and above offices to be able to continue video conferencing and screen sharing. We have changed as much as possible to be touchless- including doors, elevators, bathrooms and lunchroom items. We have removed chairs from lunchroom and conference room. Masks are required except when you are in your office/cubicle. Temperature checks and health questions to enter the building.
All the wonderful space we had so we “could all be together” is reconfigured so we can all be apart. We will continue a LOT of work from home. Some of my staff has been going in (rotating so there is coverage every day) due to needing to deal with physical mail and checks. I haven’t worked at the office since March 9, but I’ve dropped by a couple of times.
We have added the super duper air system filters and are working on a contact tracing app. We haven’t reopened the fitness center or re-started the food service for lunch.
It’s all huge changes and I am sad about it, but recognize the need. I’m on the committee for our “return to work” and we have a meeting every single weekday morning to go over the plans and details. We are a corporate office that supports essential operations in 49 states that have been open throughout and are customer facing, so we can’t complain. It’s just …so different.
