Thread by @bopinion

Here’s a list of several known Covid-19 super-spreading events:

🍝90-minute restaurant meal
🎼120-minute choir practice
🎂180-minute birthday party

If that’s enough for one person to infect a roomful, how much more risk is in a 540-minute workday? trib.al/f2y5j1A

Rather than bring employees back anytime soon, organizations should settle into remote work for the long haul.

It’s a strategy that could be broadly popular. According to Gallup, about half of people surveyed want to continue working remotely trib.al/f2y5j1A

And why not? Allowing remote work is cheaper than arranging for office upgrades.

🖥️By now, organizations and employees have already invested in essential remote-work gear: computer monitors, ergonomic chairs, sweatpants trib.al/f2y5j1A

Of course, not everyone can work from home indefinitely. It’s much easier for those in what’s broadly known as the “knowledge transfer business” — a category that includes:

👩‍💻Technologists
📰Journalists
📓Researchers
📞Consultants
👨‍⚖️Lawyers trib.al/f2y5j1A

Still, that’s a lot of people. In one survey, as many as a third of workers who once commuted say they’re now working from home.

Compare that with only about 3% of American workers who previously worked from home trib.al/f2y5j1A

Those of us who can comfortably work from home should keep doing so.

And that’s where managers should put their energies — not in reopening office buildings for people who don’t need to be there trib.al/f2y5j1A

Many companies are instead leaping ahead to solutions further downstream:

🌬️Improving air filtration
⏲️Staggering employees’ schedules
😷Stocking up on PPE, including masks

Those things should be used only when working from home isn’t an option trib.al/f2y5j1A

By working from home as long as possible, we do more to fight Covid-19.

The fewer people who return to work, the safer the workplace will be for those who do trib.al/f2y5j1A