When those who work in a “high-rise” office building reflect on the options for reaching their office, they realize that it consists of only two – the stairs and the elevator. Before the pandemic, those who occupied offices in a high-rise may have only taken the stairs during a fire drill or when they needed the exercise.

When you think about the volume of people in a high-rise office building, there are usually 15, 25, or more waiting to board while most elevators only carry about 10-12 at a time.  Standard wait time at the elevator is approximately 35 to 60 seconds, this makes it difficult to get to your office in a timely fashion.  With public health officials mandating social distancing, elevator etiquette and hygiene means wait times will skyrocket.

Buildings with four floors or less are offering an alternative to a high-rise building.   For some, even returning to a public building will be difficult and those who do, will feel more confident about taking the stairs as an option to getting on the elevator without the dread of numerous flights to conquer before their work-day begins.

Here at OfficePlace, we have a building with two floors where we have mandated social distancing while scaling the stairs and boarding the elevator – one at a time on the elevator as it only holds about three or four at a time.  As for the single flight of stairs, we prefer that two at a time on the stairs is the maximum when traveling in the same direction. If you need to go up while someone is coming down, then we advise you step back until they have reached the ground level. Since we have fewer tenants than most high-rises would, this is an easy task with very, little waiting.

For those that are “anti-germs,” we are sanitizing and disinfecting our high-touch areas including the elevator buttons and the stair handrails; along with the obvious door handles, vending machines, etc.

We also have a building with ground floor access that features smaller offices and small meeting rooms where entering means touching a door handle or two.  All surfaces are cleaned every day and meeting rooms are cleaned after each group.

If you’d like a smaller office community with big amenities, and easy access to your workday, contact us at 860-419-5900 or send an online request at www.officeplace.com.

Written by Kate Fuechsel

Illustration by Dave TenEyck

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