Offices reopening-- for those in states opening up

[SC Minnie]

For those in states that are opening up and have been working from home-- Are you offices starting to talk about opening? If so, what is their plan?

We had a Webex meeting last Friday with HR and senior management to discuss opening the office. We have over 500 people between 2 buildings. Two floors in one building and 1 floor in the other are pretty much all cubes (there are a few offices on the outer walls). I'm concerned about some of the plans they have outlined. The floor I work on is only offices and has Sr Execs including the president of the company. I have a feeling that floor will be cleaned and monitored much closer than other floors. They aren't forcing anyone to come back in, it's going to be voluntary and supposedly up to the employee. Right now business is getting done with 99% of folks working from home.

I'm curious what others are doing and if there is something that our folks haven't thought about.

 

[soccerdad72]

We're expected to work from home, generally speaking, through the summer. I work in administration for a community college and while some areas of the college are opening on a limited basis (departments like admission, financial aid and others), the rest of the college is still working from home. All summer courses are online as well, but many of our summer courses were online normally anyways.

 

[FreeTime]

We started working in our office yesterday. It is a small office. My peers in the industry that work in large offices are W@H for unknown time still even though the order has been lifted

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

DH's company put out a notice yesterday that it doesn't matter what the states say, they are not opening up offices until it is safe to do so. I'm good with that.

 

[cabanafrau]

Courts here are still almost exclusively being held remotely, although looking to make some gradual returns over the next couple weeks. I will remain home-based long-term at this point.

DH largely worked from home anyway but his offices still are not open (typical large corporate cubicle style) and are not talking about doing so yet. By the time they return his job will have ended and he will be shipping back his laptop and ID.

DD's company had a very difficult time scrambling for work from home because it's diametrically opposed to their team approach, with large open offices of hundreds of people on each floor. At this point the word they're getting is possibly starting return June 1. DD knows she is in the first wave back because she is childless. They were told weeks back that when the word comes to return to the office you cannot refuse, although they are planning for parents to come in the later stages of the return to allow for childcare arrangements to be made, particularly in consideration of those with school age children who largely relied on the kids being in school and school-based after care. Obviously they will not require anyone who is ill to come in.

 

[Snowflakey]

I don't want to go back to the office. Love, love, love being at home - and I get soooooo much more done!

 

[_19disnA]

Some companies I am aware of are alternating working from home and the office. 1/2 of the people work from home every other day. This results in fewer people in the office at one time and facilitates social distancing for those who work in a cubicle. Those at the office need to leave by a certain time each evening so cleaning crews can sanitize the work area.

 

[RangerPooh]

DH and I both work for the same university. Our state is opening back up. We received notice that we will continue working from home until the end of May. After that it will be re-evaluated.

I'd be ok working form home 2-3 days per week if needed as our student services office can get very crowded with students and employees. We're located in a basement with limited space, no windows, and poor ventilation.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

A couple weeks ago my husband's company was starting getting a plan in place though it wasn't dependent on a date. They are considered essential anyways so the building has stayed open it was just only intended for people to come in when they absolutely had to as in you couldn't do what you needed to do without some equipment or software at the office and it couldn't wait.

They've said approximately mid-late May to start ever so slowly moving people back in but there's not been a set date either. With the success of work from home they've heavily considered and are probably going to let a good portion of workers do rotations (I think they've been more considering on a weekly rotation) which will allow them the possibility of selling off a building they bought to house excess workers (normally they just lease a building and spaces within buildings rather than buy outright).

My husband's power plant project was delayed so he was pushed to R&D which is not at all necessary to be in the office right now so I don't expect him to be working again in the office for a while.

 

[sam_gordon]

We've been told to expect a slower return to our offices than what the state is doing. But, we are an essential business and have been "open" throughout, with ~80-85% of the people working outside the building.

We are starting discussions on how to bring people back, and what people to bring back. It's possible some departments won't return until next year. So we spread out other departments into their space.

One question we're looking for guidance on... our cubicles are probably about 5' (maybe 6') between chairs and has a fabric wall between them. The wall has two layers of fabric with an wire chase or air gap between them. So, can we use ALL cubicles, or do we need to leave an empty one between workers (seems extreme to me)?

 

[KPeterso]

My company has been keeping us in the loop. Essential company but many can work from home. Our most recent guidance is that offices will start to open 5/11 and at that time, leaders will be going into the office to start prepping for return of team members. Deep cleaning and setting up additional measures for the office. The goal is for team members to start returning 5/25 - 6/11. But if you are high risk or have some at risk in your home, you just tell your manager and then you stay home as long as needed or until a vaccine comes out. When I discussed with my boss, she said our HR person said she does not feel that we are anywhere close to that point of being ready to return. I will be one of the continue WAH people due to the 80+ year olds that live in my household. I just worry about losing my cube in the office as I am the only person from my area there and we go through a discussion related to my cube every year.

 

[jesusfreak75]

I've been in the office every day since the Pandemic started. We do have 75% of the admin. staff working from home and probably will continue at least thru the month of May. We're on stay at home order thru Friday, and hope to start Phase 1 opening in the state soon.

 

[Lumpy1106]

For those in states that are opening up and have been working from home-- Are you offices starting to talk about opening? If so, what is their plan?

We had a Webex meeting last Friday with HR and senior management to discuss opening the office. We have over 500 people between 2 buildings. Two floors in one building and 1 floor in the other are pretty much all cubes (there are a few offices on the outer walls). I'm concerned about some of the plans they have outlined. The floor I work on is only offices and has Sr Execs including the president of the company. I have a feeling that floor will be cleaned and monitored much closer than other floors. They aren't forcing anyone to come back in, it's going to be voluntary and supposedly up to the employee. Right now business is getting done with 99% of folks working from home.

I'm curious what others are doing and if there is something that our folks haven't thought about.

You have cubicles? Lucky you. My office went to an "open office" floor plan almost 2 years ago. BIG MISTAKE! We are considered essential, but the second the order from the County came down they hustled us out of the office. There is nothing about "Open Office" that could be considered social distancing. It's also miserable and distracting 100% of the time. I digress...
We had a similar meeting to yours this week. We were told that it will be a minimum of 4 weeks to just apply the band-aid to implement any sort of social distancing. This would mean taping off work areas (I refuse to call them cubicles and definitely not offices) so that there is 6' between you and the next person. What would that look like? They didn't say, but we did find a video from Cushman and Wakefield that I think gives us an idea - only I would expect it will be a lot more hokey in our case. Here's the vid; Cushman and Wakefield Social Distancing kludge
My first thought when watching the video is if you just put up walls instead of Less Nessman circles we would be back to the cubicles we had before the Open Office redo. As for me, my kids are out of school until further notice so I will be at home. I am A LOT more happy here than I was in my "open Office" so it will take some doing if they ever expect me to return. That's fine with them - at least that is what they are saying right now. Don't get me wrong, I see a lot of value in working in an office with my co-workers. I am optimistic that the end result will be back there, but in a much more healthy work environment. #silverlining

 

[Christine]

Not sure when we will go back in. I work in a huge building that is mostly cubicles and has over 3,000 personnel inside daily.

The draft plans I have seen so far indicate that we will break of individual teams/groups into 1/3 or 1/4th of staff. Then it will be shift attendance. Team 1 shows up for 5 days, while Teams 2, 3, and 4, WFH that week. The next week Team 1 stays home, Team 2 goes in and Teams 3 and 4 (including Team 1) are at home. The bottom line is that one team is in at a time which helps spacing in the cubicle farm. The others telework. When a Team goes home after their one week, they are then able to self-quarantine for 14 days to see if they are well. Then they come back in.

 

[MillauFr]

It will be hard for many people to come back when schools, summer camps, day cares are still closed.

 

[rjb123]

Well, my DH owns the company but he has found that he loves working from home. He has always had a home office but refused (to my annoyance!) use it until COVID started spreading. He started working from home about two or so weeks prior to the shut down in our state. His employees are now mandated to work from home and even when things open up, he will encourage them to continue to do so. Long term he has discussed doing a rotating schedule of sorts that allows his folks to keep working from home or in the office as they choose. I suspect that the employees with young children (toddlers and preschoolers) will be the ones who choose to go in more often, as they are the ones who are having more difficulty working from home right now. Folks with other kids are doing well and generally enjoying it.

 

[morgan98]

Our offices, depending on location, are potentially looking at some people going back June 1st. However, it is not going to be everyone, and it will be with following some strict rules. We are in a high rise with elevators, a cafeteria etc. We will only go back if we feel we can do it safely. We are really trying to get people to understand that it is not going to be like it was.

I am not sure that I will ever return to the office like I was there before. I have a broader role and do not report with anyone at my physical location. It is nice to make some connections, but not to the extent of having to be there as much as I was pre-virus.

It will be interesting to see how everything plays out.

 

[MGMmjl]

We have been working exclusively from home the past 7 weeks or so. But we started this week alternating between working at the office and working at home. I was in the office yesterday, and I will be in the office again on Thursday. This keeps the number of people in the building at any one time lower than normal. They are also suggesting working odd hours at the office to further limit exposure.

 

[RamblingMad]

I head back in two weeks. I’m required to wear a mask when out of my office. All common areas are closed. And if you’re sick, you’re required to stay at home. All office doors are to remain closed. All conference rooms are closed. If you’re in a cube, you’re on a rotation program, where you work from home two days one week and three days the next. This is to maintain social distancing between cubes.

 

[ronandannette]

I've been in the office every day since the Pandemic started. We do have 75% of the admin. staff working from home and probably will continue at least thru the month of May. We're on stay at home order thru Friday, and hope to start Phase 1 opening in the state soon.

Our offices have not closed either; our industry was deemed essential. While about half of our employees work at remote job sites where it is easy to maintain adequate personal distancing, the other half were in-office. Prior to the crisis, there had never been any initiative towards working from home; ours is a 65 year old company with a very traditional corporate culture.

It was determined very quickly that without systems and oversight in place, working from home was just not viable for most of our staff. In order to conform to the rules of no more that 15 people in any one setting, the surplus people were simply laid-off (153 between all the business units housed in our one building) and the duties redistributed amongst the “survivors”. Our region is not talking about lifting restrictions yet but it’s of little consequence at this point. The economic impact of Covid (amongst other things) has decimated our industry and our projections are grim for years to come. Even if things completely reopened tomorrow, our former staff members will not be returning.