Two people per elevator, each facing a corner, and one at a time in all restrooms — these are just two of the things downtown office workers are likely looking forward to as San Francisco companies begin to reopen office spaces.
A tipster who's been returning to an office occasionally at One California snapped the photo below of guidance stickers in an elevator in the building, showing elevator riders how they should be standing facing a corner in order to create maximum social distance from a fellow rider. Only two people are allowed on an elevator at a time — but if those people had to ride public transit to get to work, chances are they will have been in closer proximity to strangers than this already in their workday.
The tipster also said that restrooms in the building had been marked with signage dictating that only one person per gender, per restroom will be allowed at any given time in the coming months.
Another hazard office workers may be facing: Legionnaire's disease! As the Chronicle reported last week, stagnant water in pipes in abandoned buildings all over downtown poses a health hazard all its own — with bacteria like the one that causes Legionnaire's disease potentially running rampant in unused pipes.
Without many clear guidelines, the city of San Francisco has said that offices can reopen on June 15. But a lot of companies are setting their own schedules and safety guidelines, and it will likely be the fall before much downtown business activity resumes.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai issued a memo last month detailed plans for reopening Google/YouTube offices at 10- or 15-percent capacity, with employees rotating through offices as needed. He said the reopening process would be "slow, deliberate and incremental," and the process will begin on July 6 according to a recent blog post.
Salesforce, which employs 9,000 local workers, has not yet set a date for its offices to reopen, but it has said that face masks and six-foot distancing will be mandatory when they do, as the Chronicle reports.
And Wells Fargo is reopening a few retail branches this month, but says that its 14,500 Bay Area employees can mostly work from home until at least June 30.