Reopening Guidance for A Customer-Facing Workplace
June 23, 2020 9:27 AM Subscribe
I am in a customer-facing role, and my workplace is planning a limited reopening to the public. Because of some snowflake details (within), I'm worried that the full public health implications of reopening haven't been considered.
Can you help me brainstorm questions / suggestions for management?
My public-facing workplace is reopening to the public. I am in the US; my state has flattened the curve and is being fairly conservative about reopening. Management is being very diligent about implementing social distancing and PPE. Everyone will be wearing a mask. However, it seems management has struggled to get workplace safety advice from state government.
My biggest concern is the length of time that visitors will be in our building. Because of the nature of our facility, people will be spending hours at a time in our public spaces. We are in a 20-year-old building with an open floor plan and large, high-ceilinged spaces (think a museum). However, because of the nature of what we do, visitors may spend hours in one spot, just 20-40 feet from our service desks.
From my understanding, sharing a space for long periods of time is higher risk than the brief interactions you might see in a grocery store. I don't work at the service desks that are highest risk, but I am concerned for my coworkers who will be hanging out in a (large but indoor) space with 5-15 visitors for 90 minutes at a time.
Two questions:
-Am I correct that this is a higher-risk situation? Again, we have a very open floor plan where air is shared between spaces and floors, so it's hard to know what will happen with air currents, etc.
-What questions should I be asking, or suggestions should I be making, to management in order to mitigate the risk of aerosol contact? I plan to ask if they've made changes to the HVAC setup to increase circulation. I also want to institute a ban on unnecessary talking, as this spreads aerosols.
Are there other mitigation strategies that I should bring up? Maybe I can ask if someone from the health department can do a walk-through to evaluate our setup?
(Not reopening at all is probably not an option, due to the nature of our work. However, if you feel strongly we're making a terrible mistake and have studies to back it up, I'm open to that too.)
My public-facing workplace is reopening to the public. I am in the US; my state has flattened the curve and is being fairly conservative about reopening. Management is being very diligent about implementing social distancing and PPE. Everyone will be wearing a mask. However, it seems management has struggled to get workplace safety advice from state government.
My biggest concern is the length of time that visitors will be in our building. Because of the nature of our facility, people will be spending hours at a time in our public spaces. We are in a 20-year-old building with an open floor plan and large, high-ceilinged spaces (think a museum). However, because of the nature of what we do, visitors may spend hours in one spot, just 20-40 feet from our service desks.
From my understanding, sharing a space for long periods of time is higher risk than the brief interactions you might see in a grocery store. I don't work at the service desks that are highest risk, but I am concerned for my coworkers who will be hanging out in a (large but indoor) space with 5-15 visitors for 90 minutes at a time.
Two questions:
-Am I correct that this is a higher-risk situation? Again, we have a very open floor plan where air is shared between spaces and floors, so it's hard to know what will happen with air currents, etc.
-What questions should I be asking, or suggestions should I be making, to management in order to mitigate the risk of aerosol contact? I plan to ask if they've made changes to the HVAC setup to increase circulation. I also want to institute a ban on unnecessary talking, as this spreads aerosols.
Are there other mitigation strategies that I should bring up? Maybe I can ask if someone from the health department can do a walk-through to evaluate our setup?
(Not reopening at all is probably not an option, due to the nature of our work. However, if you feel strongly we're making a terrible mistake and have studies to back it up, I'm open to that too.)
One strategy that a lot of places around here have implemented is to avoid waiting rooms: getting people to check in and then asking / allowing them to wait outside for a text message or phone call when they're to be seen. I don't know if this would be applicable to your situation.
posted by quaking fajita at 10:10 AM on June 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by quaking fajita at 10:10 AM on June 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
Are you in a library? If you are, here are some ideas I'm seeing (they might apply even if you're not):
-masks for visitors
-plexiglass barriers at service desks
-offering mobile hotspots and chrome books for checkout to discourage people from hours of web surfing
-offering curbside checkout to reduce patron time spent in the building
-modifying access to public browsing terminals, either making them available by appointment only, reducing the number of available computers to adhere to social distancing, or reducing (or introducing) time limits on public browsing terminals to reduce people just hanging out
-add HVAC filtration or redirection if possible, open windows where possible
-reducing hours and staggering shifts so that employees are minimizing exposure as much as possible
I don't doubt that your management isn't getting much help from your state, but are they looking online for examples of what other organizations like you are doing? Lots of other libraries are sharing their plans over listservs and online and it might be helpful to get examples of what they are doing.
posted by stellaluna at 10:28 AM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
-masks for visitors
-plexiglass barriers at service desks
-offering mobile hotspots and chrome books for checkout to discourage people from hours of web surfing
-offering curbside checkout to reduce patron time spent in the building
-modifying access to public browsing terminals, either making them available by appointment only, reducing the number of available computers to adhere to social distancing, or reducing (or introducing) time limits on public browsing terminals to reduce people just hanging out
-add HVAC filtration or redirection if possible, open windows where possible
-reducing hours and staggering shifts so that employees are minimizing exposure as much as possible
I don't doubt that your management isn't getting much help from your state, but are they looking online for examples of what other organizations like you are doing? Lots of other libraries are sharing their plans over listservs and online and it might be helpful to get examples of what they are doing.
posted by stellaluna at 10:28 AM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
I just read this article that is pretty specific about how transmission risk works. It's a month or so old, but it makes the difference clear between small spaces vs. large spaces, indoors vs. outdoors, short vs. long visits. Anything that improves air circulation is going to be good.
posted by gideonfrog at 10:41 AM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by gideonfrog at 10:41 AM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
There are some really good reopening resources, including reports and webinars from ASHRAE which is the professional association for HVAC engineers.
posted by cushie at 11:08 AM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by cushie at 11:08 AM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
From everything I have read recently, the most dangerous thing by far is having a person who is sick talking/yelling/singing directly at someone else, with no barrier between them. There is risk of catching coronavirus from normal exhaled breath that can linger around a room or on a surface, but it is MUCH lower than the risk of transmission from the larger drops that come with speech-related things. There is also some indication that exposure to low amounts of the virus is not particularly dangerous for most people, but exposure to high amounts is much, much more dangerous. There is not 100% consensus behind this opinion, but it explains why masks have been so critical in stopping spread and many of the "super spreader" events.
With that in mind, for a museum-like space the most important mitigations are going to be 100% requiring masks for visitors, and physical barriers like plexiglass at counters to stop direct transmission. After that, anything you can do to lower total amount of exposure is valuable, but that's kind of a sliding scale where there's no "right" answer for how much protection you need because no one knows
posted by JZig at 12:13 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
With that in mind, for a museum-like space the most important mitigations are going to be 100% requiring masks for visitors, and physical barriers like plexiglass at counters to stop direct transmission. After that, anything you can do to lower total amount of exposure is valuable, but that's kind of a sliding scale where there's no "right" answer for how much protection you need because no one knows
posted by JZig at 12:13 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
To stellaluna's list, I will add putting caps on the number of people in the building and how long they're permitted to stay, limiting open hours, requiring that children be accompanied by an adult (not the normal practice at my place), emptying vending machines and banning food and beverages (also not normal practice), removing all of the seating in the public part of the building except what's required for computer use, and limiting the elevators to one rider/family at a time. We also implemented curbside service a while back, and increased the staff hours dedicated to phone/chat/email staffing while we reduced the number of public-facing staff hours.
posted by box at 1:14 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by box at 1:14 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
There are a bunch of crowdsourced resources in this Ask A Manager thread.
posted by matildaben at 1:28 PM on June 23, 2020
posted by matildaben at 1:28 PM on June 23, 2020
Response by poster: Thanks, all! It was, in fact, the Erin Bromage article that prompted me to ask this question. It's a great piece, but quite anxiety-producing if you're an essential worker.
I feel reassured that we're taking most of these precautions (including mandating masks). Hopefully these resources are helpful to others as well.
posted by toastedcheese at 5:26 AM on June 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
I feel reassured that we're taking most of these precautions (including mandating masks). Hopefully these resources are helpful to others as well.
posted by toastedcheese at 5:26 AM on June 24, 2020 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by parmanparman at 9:32 AM on June 23, 2020