Time To Double Down on Health and Safety Protections

Time To Double Down on Health and Safety Protections

As March 2022 appeared, two significant announcements were made.

First, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) relaxed its guidelines for wearing masks in public places, announcing that more than 90 percent of the U.S. population lives in areas where protective masks are no longer necessary in stores and restaurants

Soon thereafter, President Joe Biden announced his desire to see more companies drop all telework and remote work systems, urging employees to get back to the workplace and return to pre-pandemic lifestyles.?

The wisdom of both announcements are questioned. Thousands of Covid-related illnesses are still being reported around the country even as the omicron variant wanes. The cry to return to the physical place of work is requesting that people once again place themselves in situations where it is difficult to maintain social distancing or keep physical spaces and materials virus-free.

But, the cat is out of the bag. After two years of severe restrictions on movement and a demand for mask-wearing, citizens are celebrating a return to normalcy. March has seen many stores remove signs demanding masks for patrons, and people are moving about even in the most crowded venues without anything covering their faces.

Which is why THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TIME? to consider the health and safety measures of your office space.??

Maintain diligence

If you are going to heed the President’s call for a return to workplace attendance, or have done so already, you must assure your employees that they are going to be safe from any continued viral dangers. It is certainly still possible that the Covid virus could mutate again into another dangerous variant, and you do not want your lunch room or washroom facilities to be a petri dish for such occurrences.

In accepting the guidance of the CDC, we must still be attuned to the way we have lived our lives for the past two years. We wash our hands more frequently, we think about every surface we touch, especially if others are likely to have touched it. We fist bump instead of shake hands.

It is imperative that your workplace be mindful that even those employees who are dying to get back into the workplace want heightened levels of awareness and protection from any germs or viruses. That’s true for Covid mutations as well as for influenza strains.

Think about it. Our mask-wearing for two years not only protected us against the spread of the Covid virus, it also protected us from the common cold and flu. As much as some people protested wearing a mask, they did not mind not being sick for two consecutive winters.

It is not only possible, but necessary, for your workplace to stay vigilant in the pursuit of a clean and disinfected workplace.?

What changes should we make? What changes can we make?

As employees filtered back into the workplace, respectful companies installed more handwash stations, and performed (or had performed) more cleanliness checks in areas where employees gather or meet. None of those upgrades in health and care should be reduced or removed. Your position of authority calls on you not only to consider those who do no longer want to live with extreme caution at all times, but to consider those people who do want to maintain social distance, clean hands and clean desks and tables.?

Therefore, for the good of all of your employees, no changes should be made in your efforts to provide a clean and healthy workplace.?

In fact, you are called upon to avoid relaxing any of the rules you have toward proper health and safety behavior. While you may no longer require masks, you should keep all of your warning signs and guidelines posters up and fresh. Encourage your employees to maintain pandemic-level cleanliness habits, to avoid any sort of outbreak in your office that will make you wish you had kept your employees working remotely.

If you are uncertain how you should proceed with the health and safety measures you have installed in your workplace during the pandemic, consider a call to Excel Cleaning Services. We can quickly determine what your workplace needs to maintain based on the number of employees and the likelihood of their physical interactions.?

You do not want to lose any employee hours due to illness of any sort, even if it is not Covid-related. The pandemic did us one good service: it made us more mindful of the need to be safe and as disinfectant as possible around others.