Business owners and c-suite executives sit in cabins, rarely in open offices. Is it ok to de-mask just because you are seated in a cabin? I have some explanation to offer even if I do not have much scientific information on it.

Once in an office it is good to lead by example – if the employees see the business owner or c-suite executives sitting in the office cabin without a mask, it is likely going to have a cascading effect. Soon the employees become lax on the mask and slowly wear it on the chin.

There is also a legal requirement to wear mask in offices, and hence it is not good to defy the local laws.

The concentration of the virus could be more in an enclosed cabin (smaller size and rebreathing the same air) and so poses a risk both to the person sitting in the cabin and anyone else entering it. In the large halls where employees sit in open offices with the mask on, the concentration of the virus gets diluted thereby reducing the chances of getting covid or getting a milder infection.

An infection obtained by sitting without mask in a cabin is likely to be more severe.

Good corporate citizens should demonstrate duty of care amply – to not get infection and to not give infection, and that is what mask does. Mask are your last line of defense especially in centrally air-conditioned offices after everyone is fully vaccinated and maintains reasonable physical distance – do not drop them!

The advice is wear mask once you enter an office – cabin or no cabin!

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