Is the New Normal At Home or in the Office?
John A. Redmond
President/Co-Founder
Friday, June 18, 2021
COVID restrictions continue to relax with the wide availability of coronavirus antibody treatments from drug makers like AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. This has created an interesting dynamic across the workplace landscape, as companies try to decide what their back-to-work (office) strategies might entail.
During the height of the pandemic, most companies figured out a way to make full remote work possible. But now, there is no universal approach to ongoing (or long-term) work-from-home solutions and several large organizations are pushing employees to return to their office locations. Of course, several very large employer brands are going with a hybrid model. Both employee and employer flexibility is necessary, as this is a complex issue.
Having been in Human Capital work most of my career, I see challenges for Talent Acquisition, Talent/Performance Management and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Let’s table that for a rant another day.
The decision to return to the office has many folks anxious. Much of that anxiety is generated by the ongoing fear that has been created surrounding this pandemic and personal safety onsite. What are the safety guidelines? Mask or No Mask? When, where and how to socially distance? Do I have to have been ‘vaccinated’ to be on location? Do I have to get my brain scraped with that thing up my nose? Fever screening and temperature measuring devices is an ineffective and non-diagnostic method to monitor entry and people movement. Other diagnostic methods of detection are uncomfortable and expensive when repeated on a daily basis.
I am so happy with the decision I made to pursue our technology start-up, InspectIR Systems, full-time. With a patented technology, which allows for the (near) real-time analysis of exhaled breath, our chemistry-lab-in-a-box has a capability we were not considering until last March (2020). Specifically, the evaluation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) looking for the chemical ‘breathprint’ of viral infection(s).
The InspectIR COVID Breathalyzer (pending FDA approval) is a non-invasive tool to screen for SARS-CoV-2, even amongst asymptomatic individuals, in non-laboratory settings. In less than three (3) minutes, our device(s) can tell if a person may be actively infected and precluded from entrance/admission to a facility. The only way to ensure a true safety protocol is to understand if people are well enough to be there “right now”. Testing within seventy-two (72) hours or on some cadence that isn’t DAILY…that isn’t how incubation periods work or how illnesses behave.
We are excited about the future of work…and know that InspectIR and our instrument can help alleviate some of your fears. If you are interested in learning more, please call 469.206.4555 or write info@inspect-ir.com