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Re Imagining and re-tooling the office format: practical ideas and thoughts



Random hopeful thoughts for the post-surge-yet-no-cure-or-vaccine re-entry world (from my limited lense of working in an office).

1 – Marissa Mayer: 0 / covid19: 1

This whole trend of banning telecommuting was a fail from day one (sorry Marissa, I’m blaming you) and my hope is to see that artificial corporate diktat fade away. How about adopting hybrid models where folks can work from home a couple times a week. Trains and elevators won’t be so overloaded, there will be less co2 emissions, and people will be more productive and have a better work life balance.

2 – No more ‘martyrs’ who come to work when they are as sick as a dog

This other corporate trend of coming to work even when the person is depositing droplets and spaying aerosols everywhere, especially in an open floor plan era where you cannot hide away from said martyr, will hopefully be over.

There’s nothing noble about not staying home when you are sick!

Although I can predict the uber zealous martyrs will come to work with a mask on to elevate their martyrdom to new levels…eye roll…

3 – Speaking of the open floor plan…

I have ambivalent feelings about that one.

On one hand I like the creative environment it creates. Many great discussions have ensued from that format. Friendships have formed.

But all of us have watched those cool simulations that show that even the six foot distancing rule is archaic at best and makes up for some funny Facebook memes…

Constantly breathing Clorox wipes is not exactly sustainable in my opinion.

What to do? This is a time to shine for office plan designers! I’m sure cool concepts will emerge because that’s what we do humans. We constantly evolve and create new designs.

What about cocoon-desks? You could open and close as needed, to either signal you are available for discussion or you need some social distancing.

Bottom line is: it’s time for humility and for dropping unpractical trends, but also time for creativity to shine.

Be well!

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Time to retool. Immediately. Factories. Society.

The Sanguine Root blog has been officially commandeered and is currently being retooled to manage the current coronavirus crisis. While under “normal” circumstances we are discussing issues of native plants, ecology global warming, and all things genetic and beautiful, truly basking in the beauty of nature for all of us to enjoy and appreciate as well as meditating on the discordant aspects of our ecological situation.

But now things have changed and we are retooling to accommodate the current crisis. We are going to be discussing the issues that are related to this current situation and when the time allows it would be wonderful to start discussing life after this crisis in a practical manner. So let’s get down to business:As ecologists we are also humanitarians. Both are intrinsically linked. A humanitarian crisis is an ecological crisis. And it can be said that an ecological crisis is a humanitarian crisis. it is definitely a fact that humanity has created this crisis. Our species has created this crisis. There are actual multiple crises happening at once: There is the animal holocaust. The chicken factories and truckloads of tightly caged birds we see on the highways should be a warning sign of a serious problem. (Viruses that promulgate in these conditions and then suddenly jump species.) The chicken reality is just one example of the ongoing mis treatment of animals in America.

The American crisis in healthcare. The inequality, and the insecurity of millions of people. In the current Coronavirus Pandemic which is showing no signs of subsiding, is revealing even more brutally how vulnerable Americans are to death and disease.

We as Americans need to retool immediately! Factories need to make ventilators, n 95 masks, disinfectants, gloves, all sorts of protective gear and Anything that will help our frontline healthcare workers do their jobs safely now. We need to rise to the Occasion as Americans. Anything that gets in the way of saving lives needs to be totally ignored. Everyone that is sewing masks at home or donating their time and their lives, health care workers, supermarket employees, public transit workers and all essentials are true Heroes, it is an absolute must that your employers are issuing you masks and making sure that everything that you do has a layer of protection.

I know that we are behind the eight ball on this one. Probably by a few weeks to a couple of months. I put the blame squarely on all Autocratic authoritarian regimes, including our own American political crisis.

Please dear readers, you are on your own and please use your best judgment, practical knowledge and your most common sense approach to deal with this crisis!

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Life in Crisis mode

Stopping the bleeding. Let us think of pure survival. Us healthy for now citizens must stay home if we can and limit our outings for food and possibly outdoor exercise if in an appropriate setting. So nobody who is taking this situation seriously is really having much fun. We are overburdened with worries and anxieties, exasperated at witnessing our fellow citizens flaunt the situation and going on as normal, not practicing social distancing. What was a decent trip to the grocery store has turned into a surreal nightmare scenario for those of us who are really tuned into the ins and outs of this situation.

There is so much information to process, from the day to day news cycle to the ins and outs of protecting ourselves from infection, and the overall big picture scenarios, we must parse through all of this information and try our best as citizens to make sound decisions fully knowing that our information sources may also be propaganda. Just a Few weeks ago reputable news sources were telling us not to wear masks and now they are telling us that we absolutely must wear masks. This is the kind of propaganda that I am talking about. We are truly on our own to protect ourselves and our family. We must think things in a practical manner and think them through. Of course we must rely on all of the news sources that we have on our hands but we must also think critically about what they are propagating at the specific time. These are truly scary times and especially scary knowing that we are all on our own to make the best decisions for ourselves regardless of what type of information and dictates are given to us at any specific time.

Lastly we cannot over emphasize the fact that this virus can be undetected without symptoms for up to two weeks. In the meantime hundreds of people could be infected without knowing. This is one of the most scariest aspects of this virus. This is why you must assume that everyone else is infected and you are also infected until proven otherwise. It is extremely hard to get a test for this disease at this point. We really need to have tests!