Positively Tuesday-Workplace Safe

      

     First, thanks for all the kind words yesterday. I've had to learn, still am learning, to be outgoing and try not to be self defacing with any compliment or nicety. It helps a girls soul to know that vulnerable parts of us can be accepted and we can be lifted up in friendship. I'll try to do more so and will take the camera angle recommendations to heart. I honestly thought you took pictures form higher to make them look better. I hear my SIL chirp in every group photo to whoever is taking the picture, "Go high." as she said it shows our better angles. Now I know better. 

     My trip to the office was quite uneventful. I  filled out the paperwork quickly for my flu shot, and within five minutes, was leaving one door of the building to go through the  mail rom where the official health checks need to be captured. I was good since I had that at the flu shot station, purple wrist band to prove it. It was nice sharing a few words with one of our HR staff. He's a teddy bear of a man, so helpful and nice to everyone'd him sharing with the nurse doing the check-ins that he loved his job so much because he was probably the only one that got to know everyone in the  agency. As someone though that uses a shortened version of their name, he always calls me by my full name, and. I'm just used to it now from hm. 

     Our building is a very long building with two sections of main floor, merged together through a breezeway, and the East side of the building has a basement floor that tapers to ground level in the back of the building. The mail room entrance is on the west side, southern entrance, and the breezeway is  more middle. I had to walk through a pretty much dark building to almost the farthest corner of the East side to where my office was. The lights were on in part on that side, but I did see Rosa, who had gotten her shot right before me, one of the cleaning staff, so perhaps she was starting her afternoon rounds. One other colleague stopped by, using the tie for both a computer  diagnosis and flu shot. We visited for a bit, she standing outside my office and both of us with masks. I had shut my door and worked mask free since we are allowed to do that in our own space. 

     Other mitigations are one way directional tape in the hallways, done  by hand so the lines weren't quite straight. What a back breaking task that must have been in this huge building. Paper cups were taped over all drinking fountains, and near every shared piece of equipment, printers, microwaves, etc. were bottles of hand sanitizers. Bathroom doors were propped open, with touchless paper towel dispensers.. And of course, signs were everywhere to remind folks to mask up. If we start going back at 1/3 to 1/2 capacity, I feel pretty good about the safety measures. 

     It was a bit sad though. I was going to post a picture of the empty atrium but since it's my work place, I thought I better not. Usually a bustling place for causal small meetings, coffee and meal chats and staff activities, now chairs are gone around the tables, and the black couches and chairs usually grouped into a little pod area, surrounding a table are now. spread the six feet apart. The table chairs might have been stacked as the carpets were shampooed and perhaps they will be replaced. 

     I had left on  Friday, March 20, and we were just starting to have fewer people in the office and was expecting to be back in the following Tuesday-Wednesday. My desk was a mess with papers, and post it note reminders. I tidied that up before I left yesterday, but I needed to vacate the  buildig before 5:00 so I didn't have time to do a better job. I did learn that we are going to need cameras for our  monitors or be stuck using our lap tops, even in the office, for virtual meetings, or at least I'm going to need to figure out a better way to use my big screen and the laptop camera at the same time. The commute how was incredibly calm, taking only 45 minutes from office to driveway during the height of rush hour, a 10-15 minute time savings. I doubt that will always be the case as more people return to the office. 

     That's my report of my trial afternoon back in the office. If people keep themselves home when sick or symptomatic, follow the  safety protocols, and we stagger in office work days, I think my office will be a safe place for work.