US offices resort to sensors in futile attempts to keep workers apart

Employees chatting with protective masks on at an office in Menlo Park, California, US. Since the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, VergeSense has found that 60% of interactions among North American workers violate the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s six-foot distancing guidelines, as do an even higher share in Asia, where offices usually are smaller. — Bloomberg

Millions of workers in recent months have returned to offices outfitted with new pandemic protocols meant to keep them healthy and safe. But temperature checks and plexiglass barriers between desks can’t prevent one of the most dangerous workplace behaviors for the spread of Covid-19 – the irresistible desire to mingle.

“If you have people coming into the office, it’s very rare for them consistently to be six feet apart,” said Kanav Dhir, the head of product at VergeSense, a company that has 30,000 object-recognition sensors deployed in office buildings around the world tracking worker whereabouts.