It is estimated that over 20 million working days where lost in Australia due to sick leave in 2016/2017.
It is unknown how many of those where due to various health conditions and “sickies” however the majority of absences would have been caused by contagious coughs, colds, sniffles, flus and stomach bugs picked up in the workplace.
Working in close contact with people exposes us to all sorts of germs and bugs on a daily basis. Most of these will be harmless, but every now and again your colleague will have been close to someone sick on the train, or your office colleagues children will have picked up a nasty cold at school. Before you know it, your entire office is going down like flies, this can occur at all times of the year.
It is well documented that hand washing is one of the very best ways to avoid picking up and passing on germs. Equipping employees with hand sanitiser, placing antibacterial soap by all sinks and encouraging regular hand washing makes a huge difference to reducing germs and nasties in your workplace, HOWEVER there are other places germs generally loiter and linger in office environments – waiting to take down your entire crew.
The following are the top three worst culprits:
Telephones
Because you answer the phone when it rings immediately – there is no time to think about hand washing and sanitising. This makes the office and workplace phone one of the most widely handled pieces of communal equipment in the workplace environment. It is a must that handsets are regularly cleaned with antibacterial wipes will help you avoid transferring germs via your office phones.
Keyboards
Most workplaces policy is for staff to use their own keyboard but in more flexible open workplaces, shared keyboards usually collect lots of nasty germs. This is because they are in contact with hands almost all day – immediately after the morning commute, straight after eating our lunch – and list gets longer. Take a quick look your keyboard now and see what we mean by hygiene. Regular antibacterial wipe down will help assist with removal of germs loitering in your keyboard, however a monthly thorough clean will make the world of difference. Imagine what your desk will look like after this.
Chair arms
You may not have considered how often your hands come into contact with office chair arms – especially those found on shared furniture – including couches. From meetings to lunch breaks, to casual chats these innocent office seating can come into contact with all manner of germs over the course of just one day, requiring regular wipe down an extremely important part of taking on workplace germs.
Regular professional cleaning service is the best way to tackle germs in your office and workplace environment. Contact us today to set up your regular clean for your office, factory, industrial building, medical centre, childcare centre, gym, hotel, aged care home. Kat Cleaning where we get the job done right – first time – every time.