The banks will do what they can, within reason. But there are things that we will just have to live with. Modern offices were not designed to have open windows for fresh air. They will not be building more bathrooms. They can add some HVAC air filtration, use some social distancing, wear masks, and wash hands. But we will still be indoors, sharing the air somewhat, and no real good way to social distance the bathrooms, which is probably a greater risk than just the normal office air.
In addition, there will be an elevated risk from the neighborhood seating, where younhave no permanent desk, and all desks are shared. This makes me very nervous. Someone who was sick may have been sitting there before me. I know I will be distracted and worried constantly by the shared desks. During a pandemic, WF wants to move to shared desks, I think that’s unwise.
Anyway, if someone gets the virus, there is no way to tell if it was at the office or not. Maybe they got it at a coffee shop or public transit or from a family member. The issue would be if a cluster occurs, where several people in the same area all get it at about the same time. That would indicate someone has it and is spreading it.
Being indoors with a group of people in an office is going to be at higher risk than outdoors with breezes. The clusters we see seem to be related to indoors where many people are clustered, like long term care facilities, prisons, hospitals, meat packing plants, airplanes, cruises, schools, churches, and this will include offices. But these types of locations are also where normal flu and colds spread too.
We will face a risk just returning, but another risk is the culture of coming to work while sick. That concerns me. We all know those who come to the office coughing, sneezing, congested. They claim it is just allergies. Maybe, maybe not. This happened before the pandemic, and will continue as long as we are expected to come in to please managers. So with the current environment of ongoing layoffs, folks will come in sick, and that may be our greatest risk. That is how the outbreak at Wells Fargo will begin.