Shhhh, no talking in the elevator. And mind the “Yield” signs in the office.
Those are two of the new rules technology giant Salesforce, with some 50,000 employees world-wide, will impose in all its offices, including in San Francisco’s tallest tower, to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
“We realize that as we reopen our workplaces in the coming weeks and months, the virus will still be with us,” says the company’s 21-page Reopening Playbook.
Salesforce, which sells business software, plans to bring workers back to offices in four phases, although it will allow employees to work remotely if they wish until year’s end.
Phase 1, the only period with a specified time period so far, is to last four to six weeks, bring in workers whose presence in offices is crucial, and fill offices only to 15% of capacity, says the digital handbook, provided by Salesforce to this news organization.
In Phase 2, up to 40% of employees will be back in the office, and staggered arrivals that might be implemented in Phase 1 will be imposed, in part to “accommodate elevator queuing,” the handbook says. Some types of work will be done in shifts.
The next phase will see up to 75% of workers return, likely in multiple shifts with staggered arrivals. Salesforce, which said late last month it was starting to reopen offices in Asia, did not say when it would start to reopen U.S. offices, including Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, which contains its headquarters.
Phase 4 would see all the company’s workers back in offices, but when that occurs will depend on whether a vaccine becomes available, the handbook says.
“The timing of when we bring employees back into our offices will be unique to each office — we’ll make those decisions on a city-by-city basis, in a way that’s consistent with local government guidelines and in line with the advice of our medical experts,” the company said in a blog post last month.
San Francisco County will on Monday start allowing workers to return to offices, but only if their work can’t be done remotely.
Salesforce employees will have to attest, before entering offices, that they haven’t tested positive for coronavirus or traveled out of state in the previous two weeks, or had contact with anyone confirmed or suspected to be infected, the handbook says.
As workers return, they’ll be given face masks, and thermometers so they can comply with the mandatory temperature check they must conduct shortly before coming in. Every floor will feature a temperature-check kiosk for employees feeling unwell, and to provide “a highly visible assurance of safety at work.”
Since infectious-disease experts believe talking may spread coronavirus, it will be prohibited in elevators.
Six-foot buffers around desks will help keep up social distancing, and Plexiglas barriers will add protection, the handbook says. Workers will be allowed to remove facial coverings when at their desks and while eating. A “clean desk” policy will be imposed to facilitate twice-a-week deep cleaning of offices, with employees given boxes to bring home personal items after work. All day, high-touch areas such as doorknobs, elevator keypads and touch-screens will be disinfected, the handbook says.
Office-air systems will be “optimized” to bring in as much fresh air as possible and limit re-circulated air.
Changes to office infrastructure to enable social distancing will reduce the average capacity of any office floor to 40% to 60% of the usual number of workers, according to the handbook. Signs, including “Yield,” “Enter,” and “Exit” will direct workers in shared spaces to promote social distancing.
Initially, the company will pay for food to be brought in, but later there will be “centralized food-delivery drop-off areas.” Only individually packaged snacks will be available. Office staff may be pouring coffee and milk, but external catering for meetings will be prohibited, the handbook says.
In cases of an employee becoming infected, Salesforce would conduct contact tracing, and use a Salesforce app to confidentially document cases and manage notifications. The company has also launched Work.com, a website that markets a variety of software intended to help companies reopen safely.
While Salesforce, with $17 billion in revenue in its latest fiscal year, has substantial resources to spend on reopening offices, bringing employees back to workplaces will be a complicated and potentially costly endeavor for most any business, said UC Berkeley epidemiologist Art Reingold. Some infrastructure changes won’t cost much, such as putting spacing markers on floors for social distancing, but other work, such as modifying ventilation systems, would be expensive, and for companies that don’t own their office space, require negotiation with landlords, Reingold said.
Communal spaces, including bathrooms, elevators and stairwells, are probably the riskiest areas in an office, but rooms with many people working in them might also pose a risk, even with plastic dividers around desks, Reingold said.
