Before the Coronavirus crisis hit, it’s fair to say that most office based workers were spending many of their waking hours in the workplace. Since restrictions have eased and more of us return to work, even part time hours could see us spending 20 hours or more back in the office. Maintaining a clean and sanitary working environment is essential for wellbeing as well as productivity.
The naked eye might see a bright, clean, and vibrant workspace. But germs and bacteria aren’t visible, so unless there is dirt and grime that can be visibly seen, many areas get missed during cleaning as they’re mistaken as already clean.
Ensuring your workplace is clean, and as germ free as possible will help to keep your staff in rude health! It will also be a welcoming environment for client’s and visitors alike.
So which places within your workplace harbour the germs and bacteria that we don’t see? We’ve picked out the hotspots as follows.
Door handles
It can be difficult to get through some doors without holding the handle. The more people who touch handles, the larger the variety of germs left on them. These germs are then transferred from person to person through touch. Make sure you wash your hands regularly with soap and water to reduce the risk of spread. Door handles should be sanitised regularly.
Desks
You may think that the desk you sit at is clean, but you’d probably be surprised to learn that they can harbour more germs than the average toilet seat. These germs usually infect surfaces due to touch from hands, but some are airborne. Again, the best defence against them is hand washing.
Keyboards and telephones
Phones can be more densely populated by germs than your desk. Because of the way in which they’re used, there can be infection transferred to them from hands through touch, and from the mouth onto the mouthpiece. Regular cleaning with anti-bac wipes should reduce the risk of transference between co-workers.
Keyboards are a haven for cough and sneeze residue, crumbs, and spills. All these scenarios are a perfect breeding ground for germs. Clean up and try not to share any equipment with others.
Kitchen
Many items in the staff kitchen should probably concern you more than they do. The fridge can be infested with mould spores from decaying food. Tea and coffee mugs are often inadequately washed up leaving dirty residue, and the microwave can be a health hazard with cooked-on food attracting all kinds of hungry flies and insects as well as moulds and germs.
Even if care is taken with the washing up, sinks and plug holes can often be a magnet for bacteria if the dirty water is not washed away properly. Taps are germ hotspots too, due to constant use.
Bathrooms
E.coli bacteria can cover literally every surface in the bathroom. Washing your hands won’t always rid you of the germs either, because when you have to turn the tap off, you can re-infect your clean hands. Unless you have those push down taps which dispense a timed amount of water, the only logical answer is to dry your hands on a paper towel, and then use it turn off the water.
A professional cleaning contractor will be able to assist you in keeping your workplace clean and sanitary. At Brightr, each of our cleaners are fully qualified and will arrive badged and uniformed so you can easily identify them whilst they are on your site. If you’d like more information, you can find it here.
