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When Offices become Incubators of Disease
04/06/2009
Geoff Polkinghorne, General Manager of Initial Hygiene, explains why a clean office environment equals a healthy bottom line.
Office hygiene may only seem relevant to those colleagues who neurotically wipe their keyboards with sanitised tissues every hour.
However, with dirt come germs and germs come sick staff, absenteeism and a negative impact on your bottom line. The World Health Organisation found that biological air contamination in indoor environments has been associated with half of all absenteeism in the workforce.
There was a time when a chewed pencil was the most contagious thing in the office. Today, we share more technology than ever before, from mobile phones, to keyboards to mice and PDAs. Many companies even offer ‘hot-desking’, where colleagues choose a different desk each day. Hot-desking, according to business consultants, is great for motivation. Hot-desking, according to hygiene consultants, is also great for the spread of germs and illnesses. Which is very negative for motivation.
Here are some more facts to bring out the neurotic in us all.
Leading microbiologist, Dr Charles Gerba of the University of Arizona, has proven that your office phone is home to 25,127 microbes per square inch, your keyboard has 3,295 and your mouse has 1,676. The same study concluded that germ and influenza viruses can survive up to 73 hours on the surfaces of your desk, phone, laptop or mouse. This means that you may be cohabiting your desk space with at least 10 million microbes. Making your work space a fairly over-populated environment! “The office can become an incubator,” says Dr Gerba.
And just as you are reaching for your mini bottle of disinfectant, the news gets worse. As the day progresses the environment of an office becomes more infected and many desk become mini eco systems supporting millions of germs and bacteria.
Feeling comfortable? Fancy that sandwich you were planning to have later at your desk?
And modern habits do not help modern conditions. Increasingly in these time-strapped times, workers live, work and, most importantly, eat at their desks. Look around you, because in terms of spreading germs, the reality is that your colleagues are the worst culprits.
Shocking as it may sound, studies reveal that half of men and a quarter of women don’t wash their hands after they have been to the toilet. Which means hands that have been in the darkest and dirtiest of places are now touching your phone, keyboard and mouse.
And what about all of that “fresh” air you breathe all day. The World Health Organisation found that biological air contamination in indoor environments has been associated with half of all absenteeism in the workforce.
“Bad air” is also thought to be the main cause of sick building syndrome, SBS, which can cause a range of symptoms from headaches to throat and ear infections to tiredness and lack of motivation resulting in lower productivity and higher absenteeism.
It is one thing to condition the air but it is also essential for companies to clean the air with the correct filters and to maintain the right temperature and humidity in an office.
A Times article by Robin Young even coined the phase “Irritable Desk Syndrome,” and stated that, “The 21st Century office environment is more stressful, less productive” than ever before.
People are generally business’ most expensive and influential commodity and the environment they work in affects their health, morale, well being and ultimately their performance. Office hygiene sounds like a low priority problem but the modern reality makes it ever more relevant. Viruses have a pesky habit of becoming more adaptive, stronger and more contagious over time. The term, “There is a terrible bug going around” is more relevant in these times of super influenzas than ever before.
The good news is that bacterial levels can be reduced 99% by a regular, quality desk valet service. The bad news is that few companies are that concerned with office hygiene.
It still astounds me that office managers and bosses give so little time and thought to the environment in which their most precious technological and human resources work. Hygiene is not merely a question of aesthetics it is about a healthy business.
If you value your business you value your staff, you therefore value their health and environment. Office hygiene is now as relevant to a business’ bottom line as a strong human resource programme which will keep staff happy, healthy and profitable.
Geoff Polkinghorne is General Manager of Initial Hygiene, a division of Rentokil Initial. A leading provider of washroom services, Initial Hygiene has a network of branches and depots across the North and South Islands and services a vast array of commercial and public businesses across New Zealand. For information about office hygiene services, visit www.initial.co.nz or call 0800 464 842.
