BEAR RIVER CITY — Employees at the Procter & Gamble plant in Box Elder County are working around the clock to keep up with the push to get more toilet paper on shelves nationwide.

That means they’re having to keep a full regular staff while maintaining social distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Human resources leader Tommy Montoya said it’s meant many changes, including only one chair per table in the break rooms and keeping everyone in one assigned station for their whole shift.

“We’ve implemented new beginning and end of shift sanitizing procedures, to make sure, you know, if teams come in and out, we’re not transferring anything from one team to another, and really making sure we’re protecting all our employees,” he said.

“We’ve also implemented temperature taking, at the beginning of the shift. Before you can be admitted to the site, you’ve got to go through a declaration to make sure that you’re not experiencing any symptoms. And if you are, we’ve got a medical process to take care of that.”

However, Montoya said workers have a pretty good idea of just how important this stuff is.

“I was talking with one of the employees last week, and he was telling me, ‘I never realized that working in toilet paper was going to be so socially respected,'” Montoya said. “But he was just like, ‘it gives me a lot of pride to know that people really do need and value the products that we provide.’ It’s been pretty neat to watch that.”

Because when the simple things in life disappear, we all gain a greater appreciation.

“Our priority is keeping our employees safe, while we can ensure we deliver the products that consumers depend on for their daily lives,” Montoya said.

When our employees are safe and they feel comfortable, they’ll rise to the task of meeting the increased demand. –Tommy Montoya, P&G

Everything’s also disinfected between any shift changes. It’s a lot to put in place while maintaining a full staff here, but it’s also allowing employees here to continue to put food on the table.

“What we’ve seen is that when our employees are safe and they feel comfortable, they’ll rise to the task of meeting the increased demand,” Montoya said. “It’s pretty impressive to watch. We do believe that this time has caused all of society to pause and reflect and to think a little bit more. It is reassuring to know that in times like this, there are products, essential products on the way, that Charmin is on the way, and that our employees are able to help.”

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