EditorialDesks, blackboards, and other furniture at the 4.16 Memorial Classroom, a museum dedicated to the Sewol ferry victims in Ansan, South Korea, on May 26, 2022. (Woohae Cho/ The New York Times)
EditorialEmpty desks at a government school in Dehradun, India, where schools have been open only irregularly due to the coronavirus pandemic Jan. 25, 2022. (Atul Loke/The New York Times)
EditorialHolly Amos, a special education teacher, gives her son a COVID-19 test at a testing site at Gardena High School in Gardena, Calif., Jan. 6, 2022. (Allison Zaucha/ The New York Times)
EditorialA red wristband, indicating that the wearer prefers low risk social interaction, in Manhattan on Dec. 19, 2021. (Sasha Maslov/The New York Times)
EditorialEmployees at their desks during a “Work From Work Wednesday” at CommonBond’s office in Manhattan on Nov. 10, 2021. (Jeenah Moon/The New York Times)
EditorialU.S. Cabinet Secretaries Napolitano and Duncan to observe St. Louis students take part in ShakeOut earthquake drill, Missouri, United States - 28 Apr 2011
EditorialMost large employers in London are keeping voluntary return-to-office policies, and many require mask-wearing away from desks and are limiting office capacity. (Tom Jamieson/ The New York Times)
EditorialEmployees confer at the San Francisco headquarters of Envoy, a start-up whose latest product lets employees book desks for when they go into their company’s workplace, on June 30, 2021. (Lauren Segal/The New York Times)
EditorialThe check in counter at a co-working space in New York on April 6, 2021. There are conference rooms, private desk offices as well as open desks. (John Muggenborg/The New York Times)
EditorialA second-grade class at G.D. Jones Elementary School in Wausau, Wis., where class sizes were reduced so desks could be spread out after the district reopened buildings this fall, Dec. 7, 2020. (Jenn Ackerman/The New York Times)
EditorialAt Farmington Central Junior High School in Farmingfale, Ill., , hallways are partitioned and water fountains are covered. (Lauren Justice/The New York Times)
EditorialBasic Fun operates out of a 20,000-square-foot office where masks are mandatory, desks are spread out and stations with hand sanitizer are spread throughout the space. (Ysa Pérez/The New York Times)