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Noticable changes in workplaces
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PrepGirl View Drop Down
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    Posted: June 20 2007 at 12:46pm
    Hi I was wondering if anyone is noticing any changes in the workplace.
    For instances I work in a bank. And this week they are installing a shower. I have worked in the bank for 24 years and never seen a shower in any bank.

    When I asked did I hear right they ae installing a shower. They said yes in case we get stuck in the building and have to remain for a few days inside we can shower.
    Well made me think twice what do they know that we don't know about.

    We are having some major upgrades on the ventilation system to. Had all the usual things like hand santizers intallled. I am waiting to see them bring in the mask.
Banks will be open from what I understand. May have stagered hours and small shifts and highly guarded but they will remain open for the public.
   

    I have noticed major changes in the way the hospitals around are redoing their surroundings. Making the place Very isolated. And they got new mask in the er rooms. They got mask with splash guards and ventilators. And now they are putting rubber gloves in the bathrooms. Not patient rooms but public rest rooms.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 20 2007 at 1:04pm
Good Post PrepGirl.

What state is your bank located?
I'm calling mine first thing in the morning and talking to them about a shower. Great planning. They do have a pandemic plan they say, but it's not public.

I had just gone to the hospital last week to visit a friend in East Texas. All the rooms had hand sanitizers posted on the wall outside each room entrance.

I also visited a rest home in Flipping, Arkansas that also had good sanitizers in place. Really hadn't put two and two together, thanks for bringing this to all our attention.
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    Anne I am in the East Coast.   Do you work for a bank and that is why your calling them to ask them if they are putting in a shower stall?


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Oh another thing I thought of is...Putting in a box inside the window that has a sliding metal blind that would stop intruders from entering a work place or home if there was civil unrest going on.
   I once seen this in a hospital and asked what it was for. They told me in the World War 2 that they would pull down these metal barrier shades to protect everyone inside. And also would keep people from seeing the lights inside the building.
   I think it would be a good idea for business to install. In case riots start over food, medical stores, banks.

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    Update on the workplace changes. Well they took our supply room threw out all the stuff that was sort of good and usable. Our bank don't waste stuff they can used. So that surprised me. And they said that they are making better shelfing. Now today I come to work
and we got at least ten boxes of toilet paper. And 10 boxex of disposable cups. We never would use that many cups or have ordered that many cups. I am very curious what they will be ordering in bulk boxex next. Something wierd is going on at our work. And they have not told us what yet. But it is to strange for me seeing all these supplies come in when we usually order one box of each every month.

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Thanks for the info! Keep us up to date.
Long time lurker since day one to Member.
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I work for what can be considered a 'mom&pop' type business. Family owned, one store only. We deal with the public every day, both local shoppeds and out of town (out of country actually).  I looked at the store with a critical eye this morning. Know what I saw? I saw squat all in terms of preps. One very generic first aid kit that's seen better days. a few boxes of power bars and some assorted 'energy' drinks. Five gallons of water in the cooler. My bottle of hand sanitizing lotion on the desk. Pretty sad, eh?

And yeah, i've tried talking to the Boss and the other employees about AI...and I got these really weird looks...like the ones family members gave me back before Y2K.  So for the moment, I'm keeping an emergency kit in my truck, out of sight of prying eyes. But just knowing its there is a little bit of peace of mind.
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    Fictionwriter,

Hopefully they will wake up soon and get supplies.

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Originally posted by PrepGirl PrepGirl wrote:

     Anne I am in the East Coast.   Do you work for a bank and that is why your calling them to ask them if they are putting in a shower stall? PrepGirl

No, I do not work in a bank.
I live in a very, VERY small town in East Texas.
We attend church with many folks who run the bank. I had asked a few weeks ago about their plans, they had just started having meeting with the staff. I have not seen any construction, but I wanted to let them know what other banks are doing in their preparations. A shower is very important.

I manage several hundred and we have two male and two female shower stall facilities in respective bathrooms. We also have several cases of water on site and two a large backup generator and two standby smaller generators as a norm. BUT no food. I carry seven days of tin foods in the truck along with other emergency supplies as I work fifty miles from home.

Thanks for keeping us updated as your workplace makes changes. Very interesting, yet no word to the staff.
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    Annie,

Months ago we had a small meeting. Telling us what bf was. And that we needed to get supplies. And since then the only conversations I have had about bf with the employees was with close friends I work with who are interested. I did give my President of the bank some downloads on a cd for her to go over. And then a few weeks ago they said we was going to have another meeting about bf. But none yet so far. Also they are putting in couches that open up in some of the offices for the excutives to have if they get stuck at work.

I have worked for this bank over 20 years. Never have I seen changes like I am seeing. Major renovations to make the space in the bank more efficient. We always keep our bank up to date in renovations. But not like the ones I am seeing now. When you have worked someplace for that many years you know what the norm is.

Also my neighbors big business firm is doing contingency plans for disasters like bf, terror attacks, etc. And she is seeing some majoy changes and alerts and concerns to speed up prepping. But no specific reason was given.

PrepGirl


Is is me or have you noticed that almost every single ad in the newspapers and flyers you recieve in the mail every week same stores got water and hand sanitizers on sale. Stores I never knew carried those items got them in their flyers.   

I think that is a good way to get the water and hand sanitizers evenly distributed through out a community so that if there was a run for them. Everyone would have a chance to get some. More locations carrying prep items the better it will be if we need more in a hurry.

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Good Day

I had my annual physical today and talked with the doctor about their preparations for the flu. She told me that those in the office were concerned and contemplating installing hand santizer units, N95, and wipes in their waiting room for those that would have any syptoms, relative to the Avian Influenza or annual flu.

The company I previuously worked for has established a Pandemic Plan as part of their Business Continuity and Emergency Action Plan. I know this because I was the company's Avian Influenza (Pandemic) field expert and author of the papers. Since doing so for that company, I have assisted other companies and worked with our health department in their planning and preparation for their county plan.

I do believe that we are beginning to see that the public is becoming increasingly aware and concerned to this potential disease. All we can hope for is that people will not panick, a pandemic would not be as severe as predicted and that people are prepared not if but when it arrives.
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update we are having another pandemic flu meeting and security meeting Thurs tomorrow.
I will keep you posted on what was said about the pandemic flu.  Last pandemic meeting we had was last year in June of 2007.
Should be  interesting.  Pandemic flu topic is not something where i work talks about alot.
But it has been on the back burner.  And today I did mention that OSHA had talked about businesses getting prepared with masks etc.   My boss said yes but didnt mention what she thought of it.  I bet tomorrow they will tell us how they will deal with us working during a pandemic.  I do know again like last year my boss was away on a meeting.  And the federal government had made it mantoray for us to have a contingency plan set in place for pandemic flu.
 
Banking Buisness
 
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Let us know PrepGirl...that will be interesting. 
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Okay Im home now and can't wait to share what happen today at the meeting.
I will have to put this in my own words since its to long almost 10 pages.
1. My business wants to be proactive dealing with issues that may affect employees and customers.
2. They went over again what we have been taught to do last year to get us into the habit of good hygiene practices
like washing hands, avoid touching eyes, mouth, cover mouth when coughing and sneezing, clean items that are touched frequently, avoid close contact with others,avoid crowded conditions when possible, take precaustions when traveling, to areas affected by and influenza virus, say home when ill with flu systoms, get a influenza shot annually, recieve pneumonia vac if recommended.
3. My business went over the potential impact of how many workers would be sick.  And how many of us who would  be able to  work.
4. They took and analysis  of the best operating hours during a pandemic.
5. We have  Pandemic Team who is meeting frequently and seems to be quite updated on pandemic flu and h5n1.  NOte  I have always forwarded any important info to my boss.
The team has given out informational pamphets, indivual hand sanitizer and anti bacterial sanitizer wipes also we have wall mounted hand sanitizer dispensers everywhere.
THATS ALL THE THINGS WE HAVE DONE SO FAR.
6.Should the need arise we will be given the following of which we were told is already in stock .
Surgical gloves
Surgical masks
Use of automated Teller machines
No customers in lobby
Close contact with local hospital for immediate emergency service should the banks emplyees becom infected with in fluenza virus.
7. We will be involved with community support not sure what that means yet.  I guess they will voice concerns over the pandemic virus to everyone
8.NOW THIS IS THE INTERESTING PART:
WE ARE STOCKING THE FOLLOWING ITEMS:  cots, blankets, pillows, water, non perishable food, cleaning supplies, batteries, battery pwered radios, lights and calculatores .
and any other items deem neccessary per department of health and human services
8.The pandemic team will monitor and track any and all pandemic outbreaks from various sites online to keep us updated.  Of which they currently are doing at this moment.
9, They gave us a pandemic phase defiintion;  We all know what that is here on af.
10. They have a plan showing who is essential to work.
11. Basiclly they got it all summed up to
And organized team who see to it that we follow proper hygeine. that we have all the supplies needed to function. Install receptacles at all locations for dispoingo if tissues. 
Review sick leave policies,   Told us to stock pile 2 weeks of food. Checking all our local vendors to determine  what they are doing to insure continuity of supplies.
THIS PART I LIKE THEY WANT TO SET UP A WEB PAGE FOR EMPLOYEES TO KEEP UP TO DATE AND CONTACTED IF WE ARE HOME
This policy is in phases also tell us what we do in different phases.
Phase 5 we kick in the important stuff
we start wearing mask gloves, and begin not being so close to public like limiting areas to do our business with public.\
when Phase 6  comes Then we go all out and protect ourselfs and use all precaustions and limit to atm and i guess close bank only to atm activity and limited acces
 
 
ILL get back on this
 
 
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Great post. 
 
The biggest change that I've seen is so ubiqitous that few people even think about it.  All those touchless sinks and towel dispensers.  Those are all born from pandemic preparedness
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 14 2008 at 12:41pm
Originally posted by NickJ NickJ wrote:

Great post. ...  All those touchless sinks and towel dispensers.  Those are all born from pandemic preparedness
And touch-less toilets, entries, even payment methods. The computer age has open doors to shopping at home. We are in the process of building and have ordered the entire house ONLINE. Yep, big trucks deliver wood, siding, windows, doors, fixtures, appliances, even landscaping. We can shop and compare prices and get the best deals. Yes, a touch-less society will help prevent many contaminants. Good catch Nickj. Clap
 
PrepGirl: Thank you so much for sharing your meeting notes. It helps me feel like aside from this board that others are also preparing and taking this seriously and are preparing seriously. I'm sorry to see they are only preparing for two weeks of supplies at the bank. Sure would like to see six-eight weeks. The cots are great! I'm going to send a note to my husband at his email so he'll remember to mention this at his work. Star
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Well things seemed sort of dead on the bird flu topic at work.  Till the other day.  with our pay check stub the boss gave another reminder about it.  They handed out flyer to stock up and be prepared.  But no more was said.
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UPDATE I RETURNED BACK TO WORK FROM A LEAVE OF ABSENCE FROM APRIL TO JULY OF 2009 . 
FOUND THAT THEY HAVE EVERYONE A SEPARATE BOTTLE OF HAND SANITIZER AND EVERYONE IS USING IT.
WE ARE READY FOR THE PANDEMIC TO TURN TO THE WORSE.  EVERYONE IS TRYING TO STAY HEALTHY.
WE STILL ARE GETTING BIG HUGE BASKETS OF FRUIT ON OUR TWO KITCHENS SUPPLIED FROM WORK.  I GUESS TO KEEP US HEALTHY.
 
SUPPLIES ARE ALL STOCKED UP.
 
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Curent situation
Overstock of supplies for personal hygiene
Distributed to all employees handsanitizer
Everyone got clorox wipes to clean area
Been told that in September we will need all our help to work.  That all the kids are going back to school. They never said that to us before.  What I think the boss means.  That in Sept. we need to prepare for whats to come. And I notice she spends very little time at work.  Like they are splitting up the Higher lvl employees in shifts.  We dont have all our higher staff working at the same time. And I know they dont got all that vacation time banked.  So they must be using some sort of precautions.  But yes all us lower lvl employees were still working.
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I read a recent new story that stated government officials believe that in order to properly combat the H1N1 virus, they need the cooperation and assistance from businesses.  They are depending on  businesses to help manage swine flu this fall by insuring that all vulnerable workers are properly vaccinated and to encourage employees with symptoms to stay home.  They are are also recommending that companies limit face-to-face meetings, company travel, and to expect employee absences due to the flu.  At my work, we have non alcoholic antibacterial spray at every desk and even have a few respirators and facemask lying around.
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