Posted on 04/11/2020 9:20:26 AM PDT by Raycpa
How about some brainstorming on how to reduce risk for office workers to return to work if not able to telecommute.
How about splitting group of employees into high risk and low risk categories and bring back low risk employees that are younger and have no preexisting conditions.
Then split the returning group in shifts so that some workers work one day while others work another day. This would reduce the transmission rate by half.
Also use testing to determine who is immune and let them come back full time.
Suggest working with a skeleton staff while the rest work from home, if possible. Rotate staff so no one gets stuck being one or the other. Swap skeleton crew members for variety’s sake. Begin bringing more people into the office as the weeks go by until you have the mix you want.
Practice good social distance discipline in the office. If you have a break room, only one person in it at a time. Don’t bring in treats to share unless they are individually wrapped.
Have people stay home if they feel ill. Masks and gloves are your call. People now wonder about the need to shake hands.
I’m not as fearful of corona’ as there are a lot of things out there that will get you and nobody worries about them at all. But taking the normal precautions you would for the flu—and practicing them diligentky—should set you up pretty well.
Just my opinion! Worth what you paid for it! :-)
Past owner of two small businesses. Never liked cubicles. Too many distractions and ways to pass on the flu, colds, etc. Rationale was higher productivity and fewer sick days.
OMG!! Why not BUBBLE BOY everyone??? geesh.
Shift one works W,Th,F, off the weekend, M, T - then shift two follows to work the same schedule. Anyone in a risk category or at threat of exposure stays home and does what they can through telecommuting.
We're essential communication workers so we've been following this for weeks now and will continue until the quarantine is lifted.
A VPN.
“How about splitting group of employees into high risk and low risk categories and bring back low risk employees that are younger and have no preexisting conditions.”
That’s a HR nightmare and if a company splits groups into high and low risk the will be inviting lawsuits.
Tonight.....you lie and bed and move everything in your head....When you wake up in the morning, you will know exactly what to do.
My son’s job is like that. He has an essential job with a satellite mission at NASA. They can only go in for essential mission work and otherwise work from home. He’s one of only a small number who can do his particular job so they are on an on-call schedule so they never are together.
I was pandemic manager at a large university during the H1N1 in 2009-10, and we actually did a lot of planning for something like this, and implemented some of it. You can’t achieve a perfect scenario, so the goal is to reduce risk. My suggestions:
Everyone wears masks. All day.
If people deal with the public, put up a plexiglass barrier between the service counter person and the visitor. It doesn’t have to be huge or fancy. Some of our local business (like Fedex counter) have these in place now.
No meetings. Unless it’s a very few people and you have a room big enough they can spread out.
No paper handed around. No real reason for paper these days, even for legal documents.
No hand shaking.
Instruct everyone that if anyone feels off, stay home. This is not the time to tough it out and come in until you’re confident of what you do or don’t have.
Most important of all: try to have a custodian who goes around and disinfects high touch surfaces all day long. Door knobs, door edges, faucets and toilet handles in the bathroom, break room surfaces. This really really helps.
Stagger it, with 1 to 2 week intervals
Bring back in order of least threatened.
It’s a lot more work when there since we’re essentially working at half staff but the seven day stretches off are very nice. The workaholics are getting lots of quality time with their families, some of them for the first time ever.
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Some practical steps:
1) Build walls, assign work spaces. Open plan offices with ‘first come/first serve desks are a great way to spread disease. Cubicles help some, real walls make a real difference. But that means managers have to manage, instead of enforce.
2) Upgrade HVAC with real filtering. Commerical systems circulate air, they don’t clean it.
Of course, those changes cost money that small businesses probably don’t have, or which can be out of the control of a business owner/tenant.
3) Daily temperature checks. Preferably with a touchless measuring device.
4) Provide masks, sanitizer, and frequent cleaning of work areas.
Donald Trump said the other day he’s getting letters saying “I’ve found my family again.”
I’m working on a national endeavor to help families do just that. Check out backyardcampout.fun
None of them. This country wasn’t meant for stuff like this, but if you have to be around each other you do what you have to do. As soon as those disposable masks are made here that would be best.
Or:
Put everyone on a maintenance dose of hydroxychloroquine (the people on the early quarantined cruise ships who were taking hydroxychloroquine for lupus or arthritis or to prevent malaria didn't contract the virus) and go back to work.
Or:
If you don't have any of the people listed in the first option just go back to work.
I actually know a company that does something like that. They have an early shift and a late shift now. No one eats lunch together for now. People avoid contact with one another and call each other on their office or cell phones.
I can get more details if you want me to.
May this virus be the death of the Open-Plan office & the public transit commute into the the Open-Plan hell.
The author should use google to see if anyone has posted ideas to adapt these Open-Plan hells into a virus-limiting environment.
No brain storming required. Treat the work place like it is a grocery store without food.
Use the same precautions.
Likewise, anywhere large groups of people gather.
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