Rank: Forum user 
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Hello,
Sorry for the long one again, but please bare with me. For those that are used to my posts I apologise.
The senior management team have now asked me to look into social bubbles to adhere to in work. I work in a large warehouse facility in an airport and we have sites across the regions in multiple warehouses. I do not believe this would work due to warehouse and office staff entering lots of different areas/welfare areas/smoking shelters etc all being together, however they still insist on writing a presentation on (for and against arguments) for this. Has anyone else' work tried to implement this, and any tips on even how to start as government advice is just for those at home.
Thank you!
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Government guidance does talk about having consistent "work teams" which I would say is the same as bubbles.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Bubbles is the term that they are using in schools I think. As Kate says the idea is that you identify a group of people in your workplace that need to work together, and then keep them as far apart as possible from others in the work force. Great in theory but I can imagine difficult in practice. There is no legal requirement to do this, just something you can look out. If it is not practical to break up the workforce in such small largely self-contained groups then you can’t. There is no pint in having about 50 people as a bubble. They need to be quite small but I am not sure exactly how small they should be to actually work
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Rank: Super forum user
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...we are creating the bubbles based on the employees COVID age which includes all existing conditions and in relation to the activity they undertake...difficulty is whe they go home for the weekend...
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Rank: Super forum user
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I think Kate hit the nail on the head here. Gov are advising working as part of the same group or team which is exactly what a bubble is. You may have a much easier solution than first thought. So long as you aren't moving people onto different shofts, allowing excessive overtime or undertaking any other work with other shifts or departments, you are already doing this and meeting gov guidelines. Just make sure you reinforce this with 2m / 1m+ guidelines and meet other industry guidance too. A
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Rank: Super forum user
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Bubbles just sound more fun, don't they?
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Rank: Super forum user
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Kate, I had the same thought when this came up- Bubbles sounds alot more positive and fun than " work team, pod or collegue cluster". Almost as if they are trying to lighten the mood. Its a way of working I can see has some value in some areas, but rather more difficult in others. I have suggested this for our IT group ( they dont mix much anyway) , but not really suitable for the other staff as they travel., work different hours etc
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Rank: Super forum user
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Workplaces are such disparate environments that in my view it is impractical to attempt to define a 'one size fits all' solution across occupational environments. How can we expect a single system to fit those working in large gardens, heavy industry, transport, retail, pharmaceutical plants, a lawyers chambers, etc.?
My thought is simply that we should study our particular working environment and try to determine what approach offers us the best means ot limiting the transmission of the COVCID-19 virus for our particular situation. This could involve changes in current work practice, 'bubbles', social distancing requirements. Indeed, we might find that we have more than one approach on a single site due to differences in work practice.
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 1 user thanked chris.packham for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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We use this to a lesser extent. We are a family business, and a lot of the workforce are related to each other. Due to this we have put any family groups into areas together, as they are more likely to infect each other out of work anyway. Also our loaders do team lifts on occassions, due to this we have paired them off, so that they only lift with their paired colleague. Seeing as this is the only time that they tend to be closer than 2m (but still further than 1m) we felt this was a good solution. So far everyone is happy with this arrangement.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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We have worked right through and are doing as others above. When people need to work closer than 2m they are to stay in pre-defined teams (of 2). The only issue we seemed to have encountered with this is the apprentices who need to shadow people doing different tasks and so different people. You then have to just do the best you can in keeping interactions as low as possible, but we need them to learn in order to be productive in 3 or 4 years’ time. I think someone put in about shifts and not mixing, and I think this applies even without shifts. If you want to “bubble” groups of people you may even split the company in half to limit the potential of a complete close down if one group gets it. ( ie one person getting it and lots of people self-isolate to be sure, which creates more havoc than getting it) Of course, the other thing with bubbles is you have to watch it going in your eyes as it can sting! O come on others were thinking this also and it is Friday (and there are no moderators anymore, Truck driver training anyone and that was reported!) Chris
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