Whilst your office may give the impression everything is neat and tidy there’s a host of places that germs, bacteria, and viruses can hide.
If your office cleaning company doesn’t pay attention to these hotspots when conducting your scheduled clean these germs can potentially threaten the health of your employees and subsequently affect overall productivity.
Here’s our list of the top 5 places that germs thrive in your office and here are some tips to help mitigate their spread.
Desks
Office desks are among the top places germs and bacteria love to live in your office. Desks are where you do your work, perhaps eat your lunch and where you spend most of your day, so it only makes sense this is where a large percentage of office bacteria lives.
According to some studies your desk can host up to 10 million live bacteria and 20,961 germs per square inch making your desk up to 400 times dirtier than a toilet seat. That’s a lot of potentially harmful bacteria that can cause harm when left unattended to.
Our advice is always to keep your personal space as clean as possible. If you do have a commercial cleaning company that visits your office make sure you specify all the parts of the desk that need to be cleaned, including all the hard to access crevices.
Elevator
Everyone needs to use the elevator, particularly in high rise office buildings where the stairs don’t make sense. Using the elevator involves pushing buttons and probably holding handrails inside the elevator.
Over one day these elevators might get used hundreds if not thousands of times becoming a breeding ground for harmful germs and bacteria.
Our tip is when you can avoid using an elevator do so and if you are going to use it try not to touch the handrail inside. If you have a weekly or fortnightly cleaned scheduled with a commercial cleaning company, consider increasing the number of times they visit your office to keep on top of your office hygiene.
Kitchen
Up next is the revered office kitchen. One of the highest traffic areas of an office especially during lunch hours. Employees are keen to get their lunch heated in the microwave and get out as soon as possible, often with little regard to what state they live it in for the next person.
Benchtops see coffees, dirty dishes and food all day long and if not tended to regularly and well they can become hotspots for bacteria and germs to breed and multiply. Furthermore, there’s also fridges and coffee machines which are all for communal use.
Stay on top of your kitchen areas and always clean up after yourself. Make sure your fridge is cleaned out regularly and your coffee machines are wiped down.
The benefit of working with a professional office cleaning company is that if standards do happen to slip, your cleaning company will be able to provide a regular deep clean to ensure things don’t get out of control and your kitchen remains a safe, germ-free environment.
Door Handles
People entering in and out of different rooms, all day makes door handles one of the most touched spots in a standard office. Door handles are often metallic surfaces like stainless steel making them a great breeding ground for germs and bacteria.
In fact, a recent study found that viruses related to the coronavirus pandemic can live on plastic and stainless surfaces for up to 72 hours.
If you decide to clean your office door handles yourself make sure to use an alcohol-based solution but if you use a professional commercial cleaning company this will be industry standard.
Keyboards and Mouse
Finally, your keyboard and mouse. If you’re the only person that sits at your desk you might worry less about your bacteria however if you are hot-desking, then you might be transferring other people’s germs with your hands.
Another recent study from CBT Nuggets found that your keyboard is 20,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat.
Our advice is if you’re eating at your desk move your keyboard out of the way and clean up afterwards. Use hand sanitiser regularly and antibacterial wipes to kill bacteria before it has a chance to spread.
If you work with an office cleaning company like ALLCLEAN make sure you specify your keyboard and mouse as areas that need cleaning – that way they’re aware and have permission to clean these objects.
Germs and bacteria thrive in office environments, that’s generally why when someone falls ills other people will too. The locations that we come in contact with the most such as keyboards, desks, kitchens, elevators and door handles tend to be the best hosts. By keeping these areas clean you can do a good job at mitigating the transferal and contraction of harmful viruses in your office.
A clean office environment is essential to maintain a healthy, productive and motivated workforce. If you’re having trouble staying on top of your office cleaning or would rather leave it to the professionals get in touch with ALLCLEAN today. Having cleaned offices in Perth for over 45 years our team is flexible to work around your business hours and individual requirements.
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