18 March (Part 2) - Hot desk high risk
I don’t know many people of working age but those who can are working from
home. An accountant, an HR manager, a BBC journalist and a veterinary surgeon who assesses pet
insurance claims are all successfully bashing home keyboards but the school
secretary and the laboratory technician at a private school are not so lucky.
The physical training instructor is soon going to find herself out of work but
not the doctor in a hospital, Transferred from poking cameras where the sun
don’t shine to Corona critical duties.
My son in his home office thought he would be relatively immune from the crisis
but meetings in Sweden and Belgium were replaced by conference calls which he
says were not a satisfactory substitute.
His work on autonomous vehicles in London is on hold because there is no longer
enough traffic on the road to make for realistic testing conditions.
Almost everyone will be facing problems and in some cases facing the unknown and
God help those in the hospitality industry.
I worked my entire life in offices although I was fortunately not glued to my
desk all the time and looking back I don’t see how I could have got much work
done if forced to work at home, but at least I had a desk of my own with none of
this ‘hot desking’ business.
Hot desking must be a sure way of spreading COVID-19 and where do they
specialise in hot desking? Bexley’s flashy Civic Offices. Not such a good idea
now is it? The staff are put at additional and unnecessary risk. One worried employee found time
to dash off this quick note…
Whilst people are advised to stay at home by Prime Minister Johnson, Chief Executive Jackie Belton isn’t doing the same.
For a number of days she has been procrastinating about what to do and while sitting in a clean office like her fellow Directors staff share desks as
part of flexible working. Or should that be risk working?
No one has heard about the emergency plans so staff are risking their lives
and those of their families as no one in a leadership role can lead. She
told us yesterday she was discussing things. Staff like myself are asking
how long do you need to take. It’s a crisis. Worst case is 500,000 die. Act! You are being paid enough.
Could you please post? Staff are rightly worried. If shops are closing why can’t staff work from home?
Whilst I do not consider myself to be at especially great risk I am behaving as far as possible as if I am infected already in order to protect
the vulnerable people around me. Yesterday I came in contact with no one. Today I drove to B&Q to buy what
passes for creosote these days. I may as well spend some time attending to a badly faded fence.
Plenty of jobs at Bexley Council must be suitable for home working and maybe
that would free up enough space to get rid of germ ridden hot desking. This pesky little
virus must absolutely love that system.
Meanwhlle very expensive managers dilly dally and lives are put at risk.