WATERCOOLER CHAT: Creating Degrees of Separation

As we regain more solid footing and strive toward getting back to business, creating degrees of separation in the workplace becomes the next hurdle in the quest toward normalcy. One of our vendors has put together some very pertinent info on how to reframe your thinking about the steps needed to relaunch your office.

The distancing protocol to maintain 6ft between yourself and another person represents one of the greatest challenges in bringing people back into the workplace safely. Depending upon your office layout, updated space planning will be essential to not only moving people around the office, but how they engage and collaborate with colleagues and function as a team.

We are fundamentally wired to socialize. If we look back over 60+ years of the modern office, everything that has been considered, analyzed, documented, designed, and built into the current state of our workplaces has absolutely nothing to do with 6 degrees of separation from the next person. On the contrary, our most recent design focus in the workplace has been orchestrated to bring people closer together in team collaboration.

Rebooting the Workplace

In this document, we explore three planning strategies to adapt your existing workplace to support social distancing guidelines:

1. Shift scheduling the workforce
2. Reconfiguring the workplace
3. Redefining shared spaces

So, let’s get started. Our design team is poised to answer any questions you have as you navigate the complexities of these changes and strive to unlock the hidden potential of your workplace. Adapting to change is already in the mindset of your team, giving them the best foundation for this next phase is crucial for the success of a productive reboot.