Germ hotspots around the office - working safely during the pandemic
When the guidance to stay at home first came in March 2020, many offices and workplaces across the country closed their doors and moved their staff to a remote working arrangement. However, this was not a possibility for all.
At a time when workplace hygiene is so important, regular cleaning and sanitising is essential, but there are some areas you might wish to pay special attention to. We’ve compiled a list of germ hotspots around the office to help you with keeping your workplace clean, and your staff safe.
Cleaning equipment
It may seem a little paradoxical, but the equipment you use to clean and wipe down surfaces can often harbour harmful bacteria. Cleaning cloths and sponges provide the perfect environment for bacteria to live and breed, so it’s important to disinfect your equipment regularly to prevent bacteria from spreading to other surfaces every time you clean.
Keyboard, mouse, and personal devices
Your keyboard, mouse, and phone are tools that you will use for long periods of time throughout the day, and they each hold thousands of microorganisms and bacteria. If you’re taking the time to sanitise your hands more regularly, it makes sense to sanitise your keyboard and other personal devices as regularly as possible too.
Pens and pencils
The fact that our stationery spends time lying around on desks and office surfaces, rolling around in the bottom of our bag, or being borrowed by and passed between coworkers, makes pens and other stationery a definite hotspot for a range of bacteria and potential viruses. Consider santising your stationery on a daily basis, and you should definitely avoid chewing your pen!
Hands
You may not be shaking hands with clients at the moment, but consider all of the surfaces you’ll come into contact with when carrying out a simple task, such as making a cup of coffee. First, there’s the door handle to enter the kitchen - a high-contact touch point within the workplace.
Once you’re in the kitchen, you’ll go to open the cupboard and take out your favourite mug. You’ll fill the kettle, turn it on, open the coffee canister, take a spoon from the drawer, open the fridge to grab the milk, put it back, lift the kettle to fill your cup once the water’s boiled, and again touch the kitchen door handle to head back to your desk.
Consider how many of your coworkers will have carried out the same task and come into contact with the same surfaces. Are you sanitising your hands regularly enough?
Floor surfaces
It’s important to keep floor surfaces clean, especially in poor weather, when leaves, mud, snow, and rainwater can be walked into the building by visitors and staff. Regularly sweeping and cleaning the floors will ensure any bacteria brought in from outside is removed, whilst also reducing the risk of slips and trips.
Communal areas
Even though coworkers may be avoiding gathering around the water cooler or taking lunch together in the rec room or canteen, these communal areas of the office will still see high traffic. Spaces like the kitchen, bathrooms, office entrance, and even the area around the printers, should be cleaned and disinfected more regularly to help prevent the spread of the virus.
High-contact touch points
One of the easiest ways for a virus to spread is through high-contact touch points - office door handles, access buttons, lift buttons, and any other surfaces around the office that are touched frequently by a number of different people. Touch points such as these should be wiped down and sanitised regularly throughout the day as part of your cleaning regime.
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