Getting back to workplace: When the office resembles a modern-day biohazard lab

Chennai

Have they had close contact in the last 14 days with anyone who received a COVID-19 diagnosis or was suspected of having a coronavirus infection? Within the last 24 hours have they experienced chills, shortness of breath, or a loss of taste or smell?

If they report themselves to be healthy, the app gives them a green screen that reads “Pass.” If not, the app flashes red and reads, “Do not come to the work site.” Those who are cleared to go into the office will be stopped in the lobby. There, they will have to show the all-clear screen from their app. After that, they will walk through a thermal screener temperature check. Anyone with a fever will be sent home. Those without one can get to work.

Now that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended sweeping changes to American offices, companies around the country are preparing elaborate new routines intended to keep their employees healthy. In many cases, the changes will transform workaday offices into fortified sites resembling biohazard labs.

“It’s going to be a very different experience in the office,” said Fran Katsoudas, Cisco’s chief people officer. “It is going to take a lot of work, but it can be done.” Simply complying with the CDC suggestions will present major hurdles for many companies, especially those in skyscrapers and dense urban centers. Amalgamated Bank, which has offices in New York and Washington, DC, has decided that the earliest it will bring office workers back is September and is still “digesting” the CDC recommendations.

“We wanted to make sure we give ourselves enough time for proper planning,” said Edgar Romney, an Amalgamated executive running the bank’s return-to-work task force. “There’s a lot of information about what you should be doing, but there are a lot of questions about how you should be doing it.” For example, the CDC recommends limiting elevator use to maintain social distancing of six feet. Amalgamated, which leases space in crowded office buildings, shares elevators with many other tenants.

“We have to understand what building management’s plan is going to be,” Romney said. “What are they doing about elevators?” Even at companies that occupy entire buildings, elevators are a vexing problem. “It can’t be two people per elevator in a high rise. That’s not just feasible,” said Rob Falzon, a vice chairman at Prudential, which occupies several large buildings in Newark. “It would take us two to three hours just to get everyone in.”

One possible solution? Prudential is considering putting ultraviolet lighting in elevators so surfaces are continuously disinfected. Another CDC suggestion — that companies limit employees’ use of public transportation — is also impractical in cities like New York, where millions of people commuted to work that way before the pandemic.

“There are some real practical limitations to the guidance they’ve provided,” said Jim Underhill, chief executive of Cresa, a commercial real estate firm. “In dense urban environments, you can’t have everyone drive their car in alone. And in a 70-story high rise, you can’t limit two people to the elevator.” There are also very real concerns about whether strictly following the CDC guidelines may strip offices of much of their vibrancy.

— David Gelles is the corner office columnist for NYT© 2020

The New York Times