Wristbands, normally reserved to signify admittance to concerts and other gatherings, are starting to pop up in the workplace, helping employers decipher risk tolerance and foster an understanding of worker sensitivities amid the pandemic, according to a recent report. (Tom Brenner/For NJ Advance Media)Tom Brenner | For NJ Advance Med

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- There’s a classic episode of “Seinfeld” that lightly pokes fun at the always socially controversial kiss hello. Kramer loves it, Jerry does not — and in a series of misunderstood events, Seinfeld is nearly ostracized from his apartment building for his stance on the greeting.

This is all pre-pandemic, of course, before masks, before mandates and definitely before omicron. But in today’s especially contagious clime, the episode seems relevant. Do we kiss hello? Can we shake hands? Is a fist bump limited to the locker room?

And as office dwellers gradually return to the workplace for the first time in two years, it’s becoming a bit of a professional debate: How should we greet each other in this new age of coronavirus (COVID-19)?

“What I really didn’t want is for someone to constantly explain how they were feeling,” Nicki Burge, the head of human resources for Direct Online Services recently told The New York Times, which reported on her company’s new wristband strategy that easily spells out employee safety preferences. “Having to say ‘I’ve got someone sick at home’ seven times a day when you’re making coffee isn’t easy.”

It’s a color-coding tactic once reserved for concerts, festivals or retreats that is now being adopted by large employers who want workers to comfortably come back into the office. Green universally signifies that an employee is open to any form of greeting and communication; yellow indicates some trepidation so an elbow or fist bump will suffice; and for those wearing red, a socially distanced wave is de rigueur, according to the report.

Delicate and subtle, these wristbands, pins and other smallish accessories signal preferences for social distancing, masking and shaking hands, offering employers a way to accommodate different degrees of COVID risk tolerance.

“It’s me not having to have a conversation with someone saying, ‘Oh please would you mind keeping your distance,’” Emma Thorne, an assistant at law firm, Clyde & Co., told The Times. “Sometimes that could be misconstrued as me being rude, whereas the red wristband shows it’s purely because of the pandemic.”

Thorne, who is pregnant, told the media outlet she chooses to wear red, allowing distance without having to repeatedly spell out her anxiety and concerns.

“Prior to the pandemic, I would go in to hug people and never even think they didn’t want to be hugged,” Leah McGowen-Hare, a vice president at Salesforce, another company who has adopted the policy, noted in The Times report. “Now we’re able to set the tone for how you interact.”

Wristband Resources, which is based outside Milwaukee, Wisc., watched the trend unfold in early 2020, The Times reported, after the company’s operations had basically ground to a halt. When public events stopped, sales dropped to nearly zero for the company, until some commercial construction businesses started ordering color-coded bracelets to signify whether or not their employees had completed temperature screenings for the day, according to the report.

With some smart marketing and a little bit of clever repurposing, coronavirus-related wristbands now account for about 60% of Wristband Resources revenue. A company executive even told The Times that companies have begun to show interest in using their wristbands for identification purposes as vaccine mandates take effect.

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