Whether you’re very concerned about coronavirus or you don’t find yourself being too worried about it, there’s going to come a time when you’ll have to go back to work, despite your feelings about personal and public safety. But with the right precautions, you can drastically reduce your chances of contracting the virus from others, despite what your job is.
To show you how this can be done, here are three ways to keep yourself safe at work during coronavirus.
Resist The Urge To Shake Hands
In a professional setting, one of the most common forms of touching that takes place is the handshake. However, with the onset of the coronavirus, we’ve been told to avoid touching at all costs, which includes shaking hands at work. While this can be a hard habit for some people to break, there are other alternatives that you may want to try.
According to Justin Gmoser, a contributor to Business Insider, in the past, people would fist bump when they were worried about germs from shaking hands. However, it’s much safer to avoid having your hands touch at all. If you still want to have some form of contact, tapping elbows will likely be the safest option. Safer still is something like a small bow or nodding your head. So if you feel yourself or someone else starting to go in for a handshake, either consciously or unconsciously, try to remember one of the alternatives that will help keep both of you safer.
Use All Available Space
Another measure you should be taking to keep yourself and others safe from getting COVID-19, according to Kristen Gerencher, a contributor to Forbes.com, is to put as much space between you and others as you possibly can. Ideally, you should try to be at least six feet apart. So while you’re working, you should try to set up your workspace so you are using all available space to create distance between yourself and others.
In some work settings, putting up physical barriers that keep you separated from others will have to work. In different situations, you may be able to move around your office space or seating arrangements so that everyone is further away from their coworkers. While this might mean getting rid of some other pieces of furniture or items that are taking up space, it could be well worth it to keep everyone healthy.
Keep Things Clean
As we’ve been hearing since the beginning of the coronavirus, keeping things hygienic can make a world of difference for staving off the virus. To do this in your workplace, the Red Cross recommends that you make it a priority to clean and disinfect every area that you touch and work in each day.
If you’re going to be headed back to work soon, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you stay safe and healthy amid the coronavirus.