Americans will find a different office to the one they left

Open-plan floors, face-toface meetings, hot desking and water-cooler chats may be a thing of the past

Millions of white-collar workers across the United States are facing the biggest changes in their careers, as the country slowly edges back to normal in the wake of the pandemic.

In many places, the open-plan office, a staple of the American workplace since the Sixties, will become an historical curiosity under sweeping recommendations announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

All 50 US states have eased some of the restrictions, paving the way for a gradual return to work.

The CDC guidance recommends office managers place desks six feet apart.

Should that not be possible, then managers are advised to use plastic screens to prevent transmission of coronavirus.

Sales of Plexiglass and Perspex, two leading manufacturers of screens, have soared since the start of the pandemic.

One California retailer has reported a 200 per cent increase on the same time last year.

Communal seating in breakout areas, where staff traditionally have met to exchange ideas, should be removed.

Staff should wear face masks at all times and companies should consider taking workers’ temperatures when they arrive.

Shift times should be staggered to provide more space for staff who are required to turn up for work.

Offices, meeting rooms and even car parks should be festooned with “visual cues” such as stickers, to make sure that staff maintain social distancing.

The water cooler, normally the hub of office gossip, is seen as a potential health hazard.

Instead, staff should be offered bottled water, which is less likely to transmit the virus. Similar restrictions are recommended for coffee and even snacks.

Handshaking, hugging and fistbumping should be banned. Limits should be placed on the number of people allowed to use a lift. Offices which have relied on air-conditioning to keep temperatures comfortable should consider just opening the windows if possible, the CDC adds.

Otherwise, air conditioning systems should be bolstered with air filters.

Other recommended precautions include using ultraviolet light to kill off the virus as well as repeated cleaning and disinfecting of all surfaces.

Even getting to work will be different. After decades of encouraging people to carpool or use public transport to ease congestion, the CDC recommends workers drive themselves to the office.

Several cities, including Oakland and Boston, have made some streets car-free zones, to make it easier for pedestrians to maintain social distancing.

The changes come against a backdrop of an increase in teleworking in the States.

A recent study by Upwork, a

San Francisco based freelance employment agency, predicted that 73 per cent of companies will have people working from home by 2028.

Even ahead of the CDC recommendations companies were turning to technology to boost safety.

Density, a San Francisco-based company, has developed a tool that enables office managers to track how many people are in meeting rooms and issue a warning if there are already too many people inside.

Demand for its product soared with twice as many orders in the first quarter of 2020 as in the whole of the previous year.

Many of the changes could be here to stay, Willy Shih – the Robert and Jane Cizik professor of management practice in business administration at Harvard Business School – told

The Daily Telegraph.

He said: “Companies found that productivity increased with remote working and they are now asking what am I going to do with all this office space. Will the workplace change?

“For sure it will, as companies look to de-intensify. I think it will call hot desking into question.”

Even workplace social interaction is likely to change, Prof Shih added.

“I think office gossip will go online and even the happy hour. A lot of these practices will have to take a different form.”