Beware Backwards Logic with Coronavirus
What is the best way to prevent spread of coronavirus? Stay away from other people, wash your hands and don't touch your face. Our office has decided to close to the public so the doors inside the building (a high rise) are closed.
That may sound like a good idea except our office has very little public traffic anyway. We may go all week and not have a single member of the public come in! We are a state govenment office in a very specialized field.
The powers that be have decided to close the interior doors. So now we all have to use the dirty door handle to open it every time we go to the breakroom to get our food, go out to go to the bathroom, go out to get to the elevator to go to a different floor of the building, or even go around the corner to our file room etc.
So an office full of people all need to use the same door handle all day long. This is so dumb. With hardly any public members coming through anyway, we are a much larger threat to each other at this point...especially since people in the office have been traveled for spring break and for work.
This is a well intentioned policy that is totally backwards.
In the midst of all this we are supposed to clean out our offices for new carpet to be installed as well. So I need to go in and out of that door a lot to move files to the file room, move my plants out to take them home etc.
This is why I want to work from home and be my own boss!
Jessica
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Wow, Jessica. That sounds really crazy. Suggest you wear gloves (the kind health care workers use) at work, if you can find them. They fit really well, and you can do most things with them on. When I was practicing, I always washed my hands before and after each patient, but still never touched a patient without them. (and that was 20 years ago....long before this corona mess!) Hope you can find some. Or, as you said, working from home would be the answer, and much safer, since I imagine it's difficult to maintain 6 foot distance from anyone in the office as well.
Good idea, Jessica. Are you still working in the office, or at home? Since you have to touch doorknobs that everyone else is touching if you're still working in the office, I would highly recommend that you use them there as well as shopping.
Hi Carol,
I have still been at work but will start from home as of April 1st. How are you doing in your area? We had our first death from it here yesterday.
Really glad you're able to work at home where you're safe, Jessica. Sorry to hear about the death.Was it in your city, or the first one in Alaska? My county has 63 people who have tested positive for the virus, but I don't know how many of those are really sick yet. As far as I know, FL has had several deaths, but none in my county yet.
I totally agree with you Jessica, 6 feet distance is impossible when you are at work. I use a paper towel to open doors because I work in the healthcare field, and we are now required to wear face masks at work. Washing your hands is the most important precaution you can take washing your hands constantly is now the new norm, carry hand cream because it is not pretty on your hands, hard but not impossible to do. Before and after you go to get you food, wash your hands. Ask about face masks for the employees. Please be safe and stay healthy. #WeRock
Relate much, Valerie, as I am also in healthcare. I wash my hands so often and I have to apply hand cream afterwards. Can't breathe normally with a face mask because I'm not used to wearing masks.
I also disinfect all door handles and door knobs every now and then with 10% sodium hypochlorite (chlorox).
Stay safe.
Alice
Thanks Valerie. Yes, I have cracked knuckles already and trying heavier creams. Interestingly I found that Neosporin cream worked better than anything else for the cracks to heal. I put it on since it kept opening up and bleeding so I put that on and band aid. I have always used a paper towel to open bathroom doors but now its other doors too!
Some of the decisions made can be a little arbitrary at times and hard to fathom. Definitely sparks the desire to work from your own space on your own projects.
Just one off the " random shelves ", have a vote and take the door off the hinges.
If anyone turns up from your head office.
"Oh we are just waiting for maintenance to turn up, its been like that for the last three months" lol.
If you only get one member of the public a week chances of someone higher up the pay scales would be fairly remote.
Only, tongue in cheek Jessica, I don't want to be responsible for starting a revolution in Alaska.
Alex
I wish could Alex! The higher ups are only 50 feet away where the Director of the Division of Mining, Land and Water is located! We (the Water Resources Unit) work directly under him. His boss, the Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources is just one floor up as well...and the Governor's Office is also in the building on the 20th floor...so no escape here! We all work for the Governor of the State of Alaska...not that we ever see this one...
Between the Director and his two deputies it wouldn't last long. They could see it every time they walk down the hall. They might agree it is silly but wouldn't want to annoy their higher ups.
Someone always wants the dumb doors closed. Before it was to protect us from potential shooters...not that that is a huge threat here. They are magnetic and release to slam shut if the fire alarms go off to prevent spread of fire in the high rise...so they are big and heavy and awkward to open when closed all the time.
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We have been ordered to work at home if possible by the government. I, unfortunately, don't have a laptop workstation at the office but they are trying to find the technical solutions so that we can take our desktops at home when possible. Whole society has been pretty much put on hold.
Yes. I work in state government and we are doing the same. Preparing to work from home but not ordered to do so yet.