Once upon a time, in offices everywhere, we all packed into tiny lifts without blinking an eye. We palmed door handles, still warm from another’s touch. We put our hands all over microwaves and refrigerators covered in visible fingerprints.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought an end to our old office lives and ushered in a new age of public-health awareness, sanitation savviness, and social distancing at work. Social distancing at work might be the most novel aspect of our new normal. When have you ever worried about bumping into someone while preparing snacks in the office kitchen?
Social distancing at work allows us to continue efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19 while also safely resuming new-normal business practices. As offices and businesses reopen, social distancing measures may help avoid COVID-19 surges. It also demands building managers, business owners, office managers—and really anyone who works in an office—to start thinking like public-health professionals, constantly striving to identify and mitigate risks.
Workplaces are changing and with new rules come new types challenges, new ways of working and new responsibilities for employers. Redesigning offices, including assessing filing space in the office to try and free up valuable desk space, fitting acrylic screens and looking at safe ‘shift’ patterns for staff are important changes required. Embracing this early will benefit companies in two important ways. Firstly, engendering innovation into your company’s lifeblood, creating a team that thinks differently and works creatively, to help make a company a leader. And secondly, and most importantly, ensuring you have a healthy, happy workforce.