The New York Times is the latest major media outlet to report on the end of open plan office space. In a major new article, the newspaper writes that sneeze guards may be the latest new thing to land on workers’ desks. They describe as a plexiglass barrier that employers are now considering to protect their staff from poor sneezing technique that spreads germs. They’re also looking into the possibility of building hand sanitizers into desks and positioning them at 90-degree angles to each other. Air filers that draw air down rather than up could be experimented with to create free air flow, according to the NYT.
But it’s not yet clear who will have the expertise to propose solutions that have real impact. āWe are not infectious disease experts, we are simply furniture people,ā said Tracy D. Wymer, vice president for workplace at Knoll. She’s being contacted by the corporate customers her company makes furniture for to figure out ways to adapt to life under the threat of pandemic. Even more radical solutions are being considered, the most incredible of which is offering workers the ability to stay home if they’re sick, rather than coming into the office and infecting the rest of their teams. The concept of paid sick leave is not uncommon in the rest of the world but has until now been seen as a pointless extra expense that could encourage absenteeism.
