The essentials in a one and a half meter office

In the one and a half meter society, your office has to look very different compared to the situation before the corona crisis. If all employees of your cleaning company can slowly come back to the office, it is important to have everything in order. So it's time for action! Here are a few practical things to keep in mind.

At the moment, most office workers work from home and the office buildings of cleaning companies are almost abandoned. But what if, after this intelligent lockdown, the measures are less strict and everyone can eventually go back to the office?

New interior cleaning office necessary

We now know that, for several functions in the cleaning industry, it is possible to work from home. But we have also learned that we sometimes need to see the other person in real life. Both forms of working, at home and in the office, will undoubtedly continue to exist side by side. In addition, it is possible for employees to work at home and at the office in shifts. Another option is to work longer one day and have the next day off.

Anyway, it is inevitable that far fewer workplaces can be used in the office and that you have to arrange your work floors differently. We will have to see what the offices will look like when we can actually work there again. There are already very simple measures you can take to prepare for the new situation.

Daily reminders

You might think that by now everyone is used to the one and a half meter distance, but it doesn't hurt to remind people in the office to follow the rules. At the entrance you can, for example, place a walk-in mat with a reminder, or even hang a warning sign.

In addition, you can put stickers on doors and windows in strategic places throughout the office to remind your colleagues. There are stickers in all shapes and sizes that tell people to keep one and a half meter distance.

In addition, there are stickers to remind colleagues not to shake hands, sneeze inside the elbow, and wash their hands regularly. Stickers are not only for sticking on windows, doors and walls, but also for use on floors. You can choose to mix different stickers together.

The coffee corner

One place where it is difficult to keep a meter and a half away is the area near the coffee machine. There will be cleaning companies where the coffee machine will be switched off and the coffee will be brought to you by a colleague, just like in the 80s. But if that is not the case with your organization, it is important to clearly indicate the right distance with tape on the floor. place the tape (preferably a little over) a meter and a half apart on the floor, so that everyone knows what is expected of them.

One-way traffic

The new cleaning office should be more spacious. This may include wider paths between the desks. But it is not possible in every office to create paths of two or even two and a half meters wide. It may be an idea to introduce one-way traffic, so that people do not have to shuffle past each other uncomfortably. You can also indicate this with stickers on the floors. For example, there are floor stickers with arrows for rough and smooth floors. They come in yellow and blue. In addition, you can think of footstep stickers that emphasize the seriousness of the situation halfway down the aisle.

Think carefully about how many reminders you want to give people. There should be enough, but not too much. With an overkill of warnings, people continuously feel unsafe and that can have a stress-promoting effect. So be clear, but don't overdo it. If people do not follow the rules, you can always add extra warnings later.

Workplaces

The desks will probably have to be arranged differently. Or, if you work with blocks of four or six desks, you cannot avoid making two or three desks inaccessible per block. You do this, for example, by applying red and white markers to those desks. Also consider circles on the floor around the desk, so that a colleague is not suddenly standing too close.

By the way, between desks you can place screens made of plexiglass. Then you can see colleagues or clients, but you are still protected. They provide a safer feeling in the office. These screens are available as a standing model, but also hanging, which can be a good solution for counters.

“A clean desk policy has to be maintained”

Many organizations have switched to activity-based workplaces in recent years. In order to avoid too much movement in the 1.5-meter office, it makes sense to let go of this concept for a while and opt for the permanent workplace. A clean desk policy must be strictly maintained, so the cleaners have good access to everything. As a compensation, you can offer people storage boxes for when they go home.

Conference rooms

Meeting rooms that could accommodate 8 or 16 people a few months ago can probably only accommodate 4 to 8 people in a 1.5 meter society. You can remove the unnecessary chairs from the room, but you can also make chairs unusable with barrier tape, for example. This prevents people from getting too close together.

The home workplace

These are very simple interventions you can do to get through the first months of the 1.5 meter society. While the office is being used, more things will gradually become clear from the input of property users. In this way, the “corona office” of your cleaning company will gradually take shape.

For now, warning stickers and protection screens are the everyday reality. In addition, do not forget that people will still work at home. The workplace at home will therefore continue to be an extension of the office. If this is not the case yet, it might be good to give people a budget with which they can make their home office comfortable and ergonomic. You don't want your employees complaining about the work at home situation.