Americans Aren’t That Worried About Returning To Work Amid COVID-19

Unless you work for Google parent Alphabet, or any of the other
Silicon Valley tech behemoths who will inevitably follow in that
company’s footsteps, your employer might soon ask you to return to
the workplace. That’s particularly true if you’re a teacher in one
of the northeastern states (like Connecticut) that have committed
to holding in-person classes in some form.

To try and assess public attitudes about returning to the
office, employment screening company JDP has published a survey on
prevailing attitudes about testing, and other back-to-work issues,
like whether employees would be comfortable if another tested
positive for COVID-19 antibodies.

With so much still being learned about the virus, there are many
unique considerations in putting together a plan to return
employees to the workplace after a lengthy absence. Companies are
facing a list of difficult choices: Do you bring everyone back at
once? Do youtest employees for antibodies? Do you require people
to wear masks in the office? There’s a lot to consider.

Here are the results from the
survey, which started with a series of questions designed to
ascertain the level of trust people have in their colleagues to do
the right thing.

Next, we addressed the complex issue of testing—both viral
testing for the active presence of Covid-19, and antibody testing,
which detects a prior immune response that could be indicative of
some degree of immunity. It goes without saying that if companies
are going to bring employees back to the office, they will need to
have some sort of testing plan.

They also published the results of a questionnaire about the
various strategies that can be used.

Businesses that haven’t had a chance to solicit feedback from
employees can probably use this as a reasonable starting point.