Let’s hope that a silver lining resulting from the stay-home orders around the world will lead to workplaces and living spaces that are cleaner than ever. Now, that’s not to say that some places were not already clean, sanitized, and healthy to work in – some were.
However, many places were likely not as clean as they needed to be. Think: bathrooms, eating surfaces and chairs, door handles, store windows, and hundreds of other places and surfaces. My hope of course is that major cleaning and sanitizing is happening in every “closed” and partially closed place of business, government institution and school.
During this crazy era, there are other stay-clean messages to heed.
- Having just hung up the phone with a Minnesota friend about someone impersonating him on Facebook, I’ll add that if something doesn’t seem squeaky clean as a communication, it isn’t. Trust your gut and report the communication as a problem or as an impersonation. This Facebook scam scenario nearly worked on my 85-year-old father who thought a Florida friend was corresponding about needing help – and wasn’t.
- Friend requests on any system – be wary, very, very wary. People are preying on lonely and angry people. Stay clean. Don’t get sucked in.
- Email bombardments for unwanted products, services, and amusements. Again, don’t get sucked in. Delete these emails as fast as you can. Keep your inbox clean.
Desks, cars, files, so many places can be cleaned and ready for business when we are able to return fully to work. What is necessary and essential may have a new definition when we can return to work. Be ready. Have your physical and mental places of work ready, clean, able to go full-steam-ahead.
Meanwhile, masks on, hands washed, I’m working a plan that was not getting as much attention before these changes. Daily, I remind myself that much is out of our control and that “all I can do is work the plan” and hope that my work and my household are still standing when this ends.
Workplace: Managing the moments of our day-to-day business lives takes work. Together, let’s explore what issues and activities affect us every day (or some days) that we go to work. – Jana