Working When Safety Isn’t Shared: A Balanced Approach

I’ve been at the same digital marketing agency for 15 years. Previously full-time in the office, everyone has been permitted to work remotely since March 2020. A handful of people like to go into the office – some daily, others a few days each week. But the majority work from home.

A few times each year, we host events that bring most people into the office, whether it be for learning opportunities, collaborating, or socializing at holiday parties. As a leader at the company, it’s important that I show up for some of these events, and I do genuinely enjoy hanging out with my colleagues.

So on those days, when I can expect up to 40 people be in the office, I do whatever I can to make it safe for me to be there. I wear a KN95 or an N95. I use nose spray and mouth spray. There are large air purifiers running in the conference room. I eat alone in my private office.

Unfortunately the windows throughout the office don’t open, so ventilation isn’t an option. I’m also unsure of how the shared air through the building’s HVAC system impacts our office’s air quality.

So I follow wastewater data to help me decide whether it’s worth the risk to go into the office. I’ve lucked out with our Halloween party the past two years where we’ve had low levels of covid transmission. But I continue to skip the holiday parties at the end of the year when transmission is high.

In the Spring we have a tailgate and go to a baseball game, and while the first few years I skipped it altogether, the past 2 years I’ve felt comfortable hanging out in a parking lot reasonably spaced from my colleagues, throwing beanbags and bonding in what I consider to be as low-risk an activity as I can get. I still skip the game since that’s a lot of people tightly packed into seats, but the tailgate is a great work social event.

Ahead of each event, we remind everyone not to come in if they have any sick symptoms. We stream everything via Google Meet so anyone who doesn’t come in can still learn and participate from home.

Out of the 40+ people who come into the office, I am the only one masking. It’s disappointing that some of the people I’ve spent so many years working with don’t consider putting a mask on even as a courtesy to me.

But in a time where Return to Office mandates have become the norm, I consider myself lucky to be afforded the flexibility to work remotely full-time and maintain relationships with my colleagues over video chat and the occasional in-office get-togethers.