Many of us have been working on our own from home for a long time during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it might be fair to say that we have all become accustomed to doing things in our ways over the course of a remote working schedule. When you are safe at home, you are obviously free to grab anything you need from the kitchen and not have to worry about where it has been or who has come into contact with it, but that won’t be the same when you are back in the office. The subject of water cooler etiquette and water cooler refills is something that all office workers are thinking about on their return to work. What used to be a place to congregate and chat has suddenly turned into a potential area of transmission! To help ease your worries, here are some ways that companies are employing safe water cooler usage in post-COVID times.
INCREASE IN HYGIENE PROTOCOLS
It is important to enforce a much stricter set of hygiene protocols around the water cooler when back at work. This will generally involve rules like only one person at a time standing by the cooler, a member of staff stepping in to sanitize the area on a regular basis and requesting that workers bring in their own reusable water bottles to put their drinks in rather than using disposable cups that might be left around the office when they are empty.
Safe Delivery Assurances
When you opt for water cooler delivery in the office, you can be assured that the company delivering to you will be following all of their specified protocols as well. Everything will be wrapped and sealed on arrival so you can be certain that the water has not been tampered with in any way. Again, if you want to be extra careful about things in this post-COVID world, then you can always sanitize everything that you receive before installing it in the office.
USE A ROTA SYSTEM
One of the biggest concerns with water cooler activity in a post-COVID work environment is the prospect of workers congregating around the area like they used to. To avoid this and avoid the chance of any transmission between colleagues, many offices have set up a kind of rota system to dictate who can go to refill their bottles and when. Of course, if you are dehydrated and desperate then you will obviously be permitted to seek out water but putting a loose rota in place can hopefully manage the traffic around the water cooler and prevent it from becoming a place where lots of workers are together at the same time.
If your office is in need of good-quality water cooler refills, then head over to the Urban Oasis website for all of the information that you might need. We can also help if you want new coolers and regular water delivery. The expert team members are ready and waiting to help you decide exactly what you need.