Over the past few months, our workforce has adapted to working fully online. We’ve held countless Zoom meetings and Town Halls, participated in charity events such as Gluttony for Good and kept our culture alive through interest-specific Teams channels and happy hours. For us, the transition came naturally as we’ve always had the option to work from wherever we choose and have experience working with a variety of tech tools.
As the city of Chicago begins to open up again, we’re welcoming our employees back into the office. Of course, we’re keeping health and safety at the forefront of our decisions, so our office space will look a little different for the foreseeable future.
We’ve always offered our employees the option to work from home and to use the office as a resource when they wish to use it. While that won’t be changing, we’ve been given a chance to reimagine our workspace. We are implementing a 40-employee maximum capacity for our Chicago office. This allows six feet of distance between each desk. Employees are asked to reserve desks online before coming into the office.
Here are some of the precautions we’re taking:
- Maintaining six feet of distance whenever possible
- Encouraging, but not requiring, masks to be worn
- Limiting social gatherings and meetings to 10 people or less
- Opening fewer public amenities to avoid passing germs
- Taking extra steps to physically distance from vulnerable populations and those living with vulnerable people
- Getting tested if you’re displaying any symptoms of COVID-19
- Continuing work from home if an employee:
- Is sick and/or has symptoms of coronavirus
- Has come into contact with anyone experiencing symptoms
- Has an underlying health condition or has frequent contact with someone who does
- Lives with anyone who is sick
- Cleaning more thoroughly at night
- Avoiding congregation in the public spaces in our offices
- Only permitting employees in our office space
- Offering hand sanitizing stations at both entrances
- Placing cleaning supplies at each endcap of desks
- Offering sanitizer and disinfectant sprays in common areas
- Modifying our office layout so all desks can have separators between them
- Replacing all shared snacks and silverware with individual snacks and plastic silverware
- Requiring employees to clean off the desk space before and after use
- Keeping minimal personal items at desks
- Wiping down all office machines and appliances after use
All of our decisions are made to keep our employees happiness and health the best it can be, while also maintaining productivity and client satisfaction. It’s one of the reasons we’ve been named a Great Place to Work in Chicago.
