Challenges on the horizon for when businesses reopen

Large and small, we are in uncharted territory when it comes to physically getting back into the office.

“One thing is for certain: when businesses open again, it will be anything but business as usual,” said David Lewis, founder and CEO of Operations Inc.

Lewis laid out just one of the many issues companies and employers will be facing.

“Going to the copy machine is going to be a totally different experience now because you don’t want to be touching the buttons the last employee touched. You don’t want to have common touchpoints, you don’t want to have an environment for community spread,” Lewis said.

He is hearing from more and more companies that are moving away from places to head straight back into the office, if they even can.

“There’s a point where you start to look at this and say, ‘you know what, I just don’t know if it’s worth it.’ The commute for metro markets is without a doubt the biggest obstacle right off the bat,” Lewis said.

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He says employers are basically asking folks to go from the safe situations they are in right now into unsafe ones.

“No matter what you do, no matter how often you clean that train or that bus, you’re still putting people in proximity with people carrying COVID-19,” Lewis said.

Some companies may start taking temperatures of employees before they enter a workplace, a possible mandate through federal or state safety standards.

“Workplace safety is going to have a 10-million-watt light bulb on it in the course of the next 45 to 65 days,” Lewis said.

That goes for all businesses. Safety standards remain one of the major obstacles that owner Neil Levin is working through at his restaurant, Maguires Bar and Grill in Easton.

“We were going to purchase plexiglass shields and put them in between all of our booths in the restaurant, but that does nothing to protect my staff,” Levine said.

Balancing it all and trying to be profitable at a safe social distance inside a restaurant.

“How do we survive? How do we keep our people safe?” Levin asked.

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