A Safe & Healthy return to the Office… and the COFFEE!

Over the last few weeks many of us have returned to the office in some capacity – maybe a couple days a week, or a couple hours in the morning.  Many more of us will be returning to the office in the next few weeks with many things on our minds.  At the front of most minds is the safety of employees and guests.  Washing hands, staying distanced and staying home when sick are well known guards for the spread of this virus.  Many are asking more challenging questions regarding their environment.  Particularly concerning the breakroom.  So, what do we do about the all-important coffee brewer!

Coffee is still important in your office

For decades, the coffee brewer has been central to the American workplace.  It has almost replaced the water cooler as the place where office life and ideas are shared.  Early in the morning, at lunch, or on a much-needed break, we often crave both the camaraderie and the comfort of a warm cup of coffee.  For companies like Merus that take their office culture seriously, we encourage the conversations that happen around that first (or fifth!) cup of coffee.  However, given the present circumstance we must think a bit differently about safe caffeinating.

Below are a few ideas from us to you:

Sanitize

• make sure you are sanitizing high touch areas a couple times a day. Handles to refrigerators, doors, counters and other common touch areas need to be cleaned often to help minimize the spread of disease.  You may want to assign a person to do morning wipe down, post-lunch wipe down, and end of day wipe down.

Separate

• you may be fortunate to be in an office where the breakroom is large enough to accommodate many employees even adhering to distancing rules. However, most of us are not!  So, consider creating a rotating break time schedule so that there are fewer people congregating in that small area.  Maybe divide your staff by last name, or where they sit in the office or something that is easy to communicate.  You also may want to consider adding a coffee station or two in the interim, again to spread out people enjoying their coffee.

Minimize

• the less people involved in making the coffee the better (many offices would love to have the problem of too many people making the coffee!). Consider having one person as your coffee brewer.  S/he would sanitize before brewing and then stage the coffee and sanitize the handle.  Then those who come to enjoy their cup could use a napkin or paper towel to pour, or a forearm to press down an air pot.

Enjoy

• fortunately for the American workforce, coffee is an integral piece of the work puzzle. So, do not deny yourself or your employees the chance to get ready for the day with a great cup of Merus coffee.

Merus is ready to serve:

These are merely a few of the ideas we have heard and had.  We at Merus are fully operational and are ready for you however you move back into your offices.  We look forward to watching life get back to “normal” in the quickest and safest way possible.  Happy drinking!

– Jamie