With the approval of the Pfizer and Moderna Vaccines, hope for the coming year begins to grow as we inch inevitably closer to the proverbial stroke of midnight on December 31st, 2021. With that new hope comes plans for the first quarter of 2021. At the top of many procurement lists are new cubicle office partitions. As employees who have been working remotely begin to return to the office, the need arises for companies to reconfigure their preexisting office furniture layout.
This is partly because a great deal of attrition has happened over the past year, and it is also because many new hires began their current positions as work from home employees. As these individuals slowly make their way to the main office for the first time, it becomes imperative for organizations to create ergonomic, efficient, and safe work environments for these new arrivals.
As happy as much of the nation is about the approval of the new vaccines, we must temper our euphoria with the grounded awareness that a vaccine is not a cure. Due to the need to prioritize the first round of inoculations to health care workers, first responders, and government leaders, it may take a while before everyone in the general population can be effectively immunized. Because of this, the basic safety protocols that we have all followed over the past 9+ months should still be observed in the workplace.
This not only applies to the distance between each individual workstation, but it also applies to the physical height of cubicle office partitions. Even with employees wearing masks inside the office, it is advisable to invest in cubicle panels that create a protective barrier between a seated individual and another person who is standing near the individual’s desk. If visibility is an issue, Cubicle World has several COVID cough shields and sneeze panels, manufactured from tempered glass, that rest on top of desks and worktables without the need for special mounting hardware.
Granted, not everyone in the office would need glass shields because many employees work with little or no interaction with fellow employees. For their workstations, companies can choose from a myriad of cubicle office partitions that support a variety of interior decors. While choices abound, it is good to narrow down selections to panels that are made from materials that are easy for employees to clean by themselves. As contagious as COVID-19 is, and as viable as it has proven to be on a variety of surfaces, it is unwise to rely exclusively on the evening cleaning crew to keep individual work areas clean.
It is better for everyone to periodically wipe down his or her desk and cubicle office partitions with a user-friendly and cost-effective cleaning agent of some type. As such, it is advisable to consult with a Cubicle World space planner first to obtain a list of which materials are the easiest to clean with over the counter surface cleaners. Any material that requires special agents or techniques to clean is not a wise investment currently. Either the employee will inadvertently damage the surface by using the wrong cleaning agent, or he or she will be afraid to damage the material and consequently fail to properly clean it.
Cubicle World offers to every organization who requests a quote a free office space plan CAD drawing that will guide the procurement process. These drawings, created by experienced designers, show the location of each workstation in the office. They also show the basic design-build of each workstation, making it possible for the procurement team to readily visualize what their new office furniture will look like within their suite once it has been installed. With a professionally drawing of this sort rendered to scale, it becomes much easier to narrow down choices of cubicle office partitions from the thousands of options available. Features such as color can then be determined, and finally, pricing options can be discussed.
Cubicle World is committed to keeping business going through and onward past this current crisis. Call us now at 713-412-3090. We can help—and we will—as soon as you make that call.