Faced with the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic, the government is raising the tone on corporate behavior. According to a study by the Institut Pasteur, 15% of infected people are infected in their workplace. This Tuesday a new health protocol has been published. It provides for the obligation for companies in confined territories to propose an action plan to promote teleworking. The protocol also provides for tougher health rules for meals taken in companies throughout the country. In theory, companies are encouraged to favor packed lunches and to further increase distancing in canteens. In practice, this is not always easy, especially at Auxerre hospital where the protocol is already very strict.
The health crisis has overturned the lunch break
Of the 1,500 workers at the hospital, there are now around 350 to 380 to eat in the cafeteria every day. This is much less than before the health crisis because it upset the meridian break. “We are very vigilant and we have very little time left” explains Isabelle. Like her colleagues, she has 30 minutes for lunch, but she makes sure to stay only a quarter of an hour at most in the canteen. “It’s the meridian break, it’s a place where we meet with colleagues to exchange other things or work topics. There, this is no longer the case.” Before the health crisis, the self service was a place of relaxation where hygiene was not always followed to the letter, it is now the exact opposite because everyone is well aware that once the mask is down, the taking of risks is maximum. As the devil hides in the details of the gel has been arranged at the entrance and inside the self, the bread tongs removed, as well as all the cutlery so far shared. Spaces have been set up so that you can remove and throw away your mask at the last moment and avoid having to put it on the table, at the risk of contaminating it.
Like a third of her colleagues, Isabelle sometimes, often even, takes her meal tray up to her office. “I have space. I eat at my desk when there are people and there is no room, it’s true, to avoid being in contact with others since we has no masks. “ If there is less space, it means that the reception capacity has been reduced, the tables have also been spaced by more than one meter, the chairs arranged in quinquonces to prevent employees from facing each other. during the meal.
Favor the meal trays and (re) push the walls of the self-service
“Before the health crisis we had 124 seats, today we have gone to about fifty” explains Nicolaus Gaudrin, the hospital restoration engineer. “By the end of the week, we are going to precisely remeasure the two-meter space and we will no doubt have to reduce the number again” explains the latter but Marie Callanquin, medical officer of the hospital does not see how to push the walls again: “Since the new regulations, the spacing must be two meters. You have to be honest, it will become a real headache. The capacity of the self-catering has been reduced by three or four since the start of the epidemic . If we have to take measures again to space the chairs even further apart, it will be quite complicated! “. One of the avenues could be to take advantage of the return of sunny days to encourage taking meals outside or to encourage agents to organize themselves so that one eats at the cafeteria while the other has lunch at the office. .
No need to go downstairs to eat together because anyway, from now on, the employee must eat alone, with no one in front of him, two meters from his colleagues and with an area of 8m².
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