People know their work environment, no matter what that actually consists of, gets dirty – that’s why they call us in. However, few people realise precisely where the real hazard spots are, and how much they could be costing a business throughout the course of a year when staff have to take sick days.
While we’re always asked to pay special attention to high-traffic areas, and those places where guests and visitors are likely to see, there are some places many people don’t necessarily think of, that we will always make a bee-line for.
Door handles
Think for one second how many door handles you are likely to touch throughout the course of a working day. There’s the one to get in to the building, then your own office door, the communal kitchen door, conference room doors and of course the toilet doors.
Now consider how many other people will have touched them before you during the course of one day. Even assuming onlObviously y one of those individuals has a cold, or hasn’t washed their hands after using the bathroom, there’s still a good chance you’re going to end up with germs on your hands after taking a quick walk around the office.
Keyboards
In a lot of offices staff have their own assigned computer; however, in others such as call centres or where shift work is commonplace, people may have to share equipment. When you think about what goes on at a desk throughout the course of a six hour shift you can understand why the keyboard itself may be the dirtiest place in the office.
People eat their lunch and snacks at their desk, dropping miniscule crumbs in to the cracks of the keyboard. Whether it’s hayfever or a full blown cold, the chances are that at some point someone will have sneezed over the keyboard you’re working on, and won’t have wiped it down afterwards. Only the most hygiene conscious are likely to wash their hands before they sit down at a computer to work, and that is why it is so easy to spread germs in this way.
The communal kitchen
For many this might be one of the most obviously dirty places in the office environment, but perhaps not for the reasons you might expect. Yes, food and drinks are likely to get spilt on surfaces day in and day out, but these are obvious, visible and invariably wiped down at the time. Others areas though are less likely to be cleaned daily, and these are the areas we always focus on.
They include things like the tap handles in the sink, which harbour a multitude of germs. Also the kettle handle or even the refrigerator door. Think how many other people will have handled those throughout the course of a day, and then think the last time anyone would have wiped it down. Good news, if you use Jigsaw, the answer will be the last time we came in to clean.
Tools of the trade
All of us have tools that we have to use on a daily basis, and these will vary depending on the jobs that we actually do. In an standard office environment these will be things like telephones, calculators, printers and photocopiers, all of which get used repeatedly throughout the course of a day by a wide variety of individuals.
We all know that not everyone has the most stringent of handwashing rituals, so if you are touching a piece of office equipment that hasn’t been cleaned properly for some time, there is a good chance you’re going to walk away with some germs, as well as that important document you had to get scanned.
The less obvious places
We’ve probably made you feel a little bit squeamish about going in to work now and touching anything ever again, and we’re sorry. Honestly. But it is worth thinking about.
Not only are we concerned with making sure that the things you don’t necessarily think of are cleaned for hygiene purposes, we also want the less obvious spots to look physically clean. People worry about wiping down surfaces and making sure desks are pristine, but what about desk legs and the bottoms of chairs? These may be less obvious and your staff or visitors are less likely to notice dirt on them, but they are still just as important. That is why we take the time to make sure they are cleaned just as thoroughly.