Frankly I think this is how we're going to have to proceed:


Most workplaces have developed their own routines and protocols for COVID-19 safety — and, frankly, most of it is common sense: make it easy for staff to keep good hygiene and avoid having many people showing up at the same place at the same time.

So there’s no hot desking. Those who cannot bike to work are allowed to come in or leave early so they can avoid crowded buses and tubes. Lunch boxes are delivered by restaurants to the workplace. Meeting rooms and common spaces are closed or furnitured around protective acrylic glass. Colleagues that have had coronavirus get additional responsibilities. At the Stockholm accountancy I use, one of the bosses who got infected in early March now manages the afternoon cake trolley. They call him ‘Mr Antibody’ because he doesn’t relish the corporate fitness program as much as the cakes he serve.

It’s common sense attitudes like these that have made foreign observers to take a second look at the ‘Swedish experiment’.