Fitch Services has implemented COVID-19 precautions to keep our customers and employees safe and healthy

COVID-19 has been spreading worldwide and affecting our daily lives for several months now, upending our work schedules, child care, and much more. As a business that cares about our Charlottesville community, Fitch Services has implemented COVID safety measures that have been in place since early 2020 to keep our customers and employees healthy. Not only can you depend on us for all your heating & cooling, electric, plumbing, and water supply needs in Charlottesville, but you can rest assured that we are following CDC safety protocol to prevent you from getting sick.

Our safety measures:

• Our employees wear masks inside the office and our technicians wear masks whenever they go to a customer’s home to do a job. We know COVID-19 mainly spreads from person to person through respiratory droplets exhaled when breathing, talking, coughing, or sneezing. Scientific studies have proven that masks block infectious droplets. Our technicians wear masks when they come to your home to do a job. We also ask our customers to please wear a mask when a technician visits their home and keep a distance of at least 6 feet when possible.
• Clean and sanitize our office daily. We routinely clean and disinfect surfaces, equipment, and floors with EPA-approved disinfectants effective against SARS-CoV-2. Touching an infected surface and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth can transmit COVID-19. We know that you rely on us to maintain a healthy office, so we make sure our office is clean every day.
• Social Distancing.Keeping a distance of at least 6 feet from others, along with other practices, is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19.We promote social distancing with 6 feet distance markers we’ve placed on our floors. We’ve also enforced limits on the number of people that can gather in an enclosed place at the same time. We have spaced out our workspaces so that our employees are working at least six feet from each other, per CDC social distancing guidelines. We have also re-worked our lunchroom so that tables and chairs are all spaced farther from each other. We encourage a limited number of employees to eat at one time. We also ask our customers to stay at least 6 feet away from technicians when they visit their homes.
• Daily Temperature Checks. All of our employees, including our technicians, receive daily temperature checks when they come into the office. We record their temperatures on a chart we’ve devised for tracking so that action can be taken if an employee develops a fever.
• Proper Hygiene and Hand-washing. Though regularly washing your hands is always important, it has been even more of a focus point since the beginning of this pandemic. We promote routine handwashing in our office. We encourage our employees to wash their hands often for at least 20 seconds, before and after interacting with customers or eating lunch. We also keep hand sanitizer at our desks and encourage glove use when disposing of trash.
• Extra sick leave.We expect our employees to tell us if they think they might’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or if they’ve tested positive. If they have, we require that they stay home and recover. If an employee has symptoms, we send them home immediately.
• Flexible remote work policy.We allow in-office employees to work remotely if feasible. This way our employees can care for children if their school is closed or take care of a sick family member if necessary.

Since we are a customer-facing business, we are taking all COVID-19 precautions very seriously. When you hire Fitch Services to complete a maintenance job for you, such as fixing your heater or installing/repairing a generator, we may be working inside and outside of your home. Because of this we are taking vital precautions to keep ourselves healthy to keep you healthy.

We’ve been staying informed. There’s a lot of information that’s rolled out regularly as we learn more about COVID-19 and the precautions we can take against it. We’re making sure our team stays informed on new symptoms, updated statistics, and protective procedures because when you know better, you can do better. We monitor the latest guidelines from the CDC and the state of Virginia and the case count of Albemarle and its surrounding counties. We also follow OSHA’s guidance on protecting our employees.

The national response to the pandemic requires that we all work together, which is why we have been so compliant in promoting a safe and healthy environment at Fitch Services. As business owners, we have a particular responsibility to protect our customers, employees, and the community at large. We know that there are varying risk levels for different groups based on age and pre-existing conditions. Still, we maintain the same standards across our business to protect everyone with the utmost care. Unfortunately, people can spread COVID-19 without even realizing they have it, so it’s best to stay vigilant.

Since COVID-19 causes respiratory difficulties, air quality and filtration are vital for keeping ourselves safe. People with lung conditions, like asthma and COPD, are particularly vulnerable. To keep you safer, our HVAC technicians can install an iWave air purifier in your home- the first air purifier proven to kill coronavirus. Winter means colder months with closed windows and breathing the same stale air over and over. Let us protect you against this virus, mold, and allergens.

Learn more about how our HVAC experts can purify your air.

This past year hasn’t been easy for most of us. It can be overwhelming to stay focused on not only our own-self care but the care of others. But we are navigating the murky waters and we believe that things are going to get better. In the meantime our customers’ and employees’ health and safety are the most critical aspects of the job.

And of course Fitch Services is still the company you can depend on for your heating & cooling, electric, plumbing, and water supply services. Contact us for more information today.