Forbes: The Cubicle Is Suddenly (And Thankfully) Endangered

Tek

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But the outbreak of coronavirus is forcing employers and employees alike to reconsider seating arrangements. “While many organizations prepared for employee safety in other ways, the workplace was not designed to mitigate the spread of disease,” cautioned office furniture maker Steelcase in its brochure “The Post-COVID Workplace.”

The key question, as people begin to head back to work, is whether guidelines developed to slow the spread of the virus will take down the cubicle or give it new life. Did decades of trying to “stuff as many people in as small a space for as cheaply as possible” also put them in a human petri dish or will the cloth-covered walls give workers added protection from each other?
A CBS News poll conducted April 20-22 found that 56% of Americans would be uncomfortable “going to a workplace outside of the home” if stay-at-home orders are lifted. The threat of a potentially deadly disease is a productivity-killing distraction more intense than the kids and dogs at home. Bringing back too many people within a cubicle’s width of each other could create a department or company COVID-19 outbreak. Even with high unemployment, key people might resign rather than return. A firm that calls people back without comprehensively addressing the coronavirus risk might find itself the subject of complaints to OSHA.
“Planning paradigms of the past were driven by density and cost,” states the Steelcase brochure. Going forward they need to be based on the ability to adapt easily to possible economic, climate and health disruptions. The reinvented office must be designed with an even deeper commitment to the wellbeing of people, recognizing that their physical, cognitive and emotional states are inherently linked to their safety.”

 

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