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| Employee Health & Wellness |
| Office Sanitation: Are you at risk for infection? |
- Amanda came to work with a cold. She sneezed on your phone while taking a call at your workstation.
- After staff meeting, Bill’s chewed-up pencil ended up in the holder on your desk.
- And the bathroom! The keyboards! The doorknobs! The handshakes!
- How worried should you be about germs in the workplace?
Dr. Kelly Reynolds, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, says, “You don’t want to destroy your quality of life because you’re paranoid about catching germs. But there’s certainly some need to protect yourself.”
You can reduce the risk of viral or bacterial infection at the office.
- Wash your hands regularly. Use soap and sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” three times to make sure you wash long enough.
- Bring antibacterial wipes to the office. Wipe your phone and keyboard daily.
- Wash your coffee mug or soda cup after each use.
- Use paper towels in the office kitchen instead of the communal dishrag.
- Use the disposable paper toilet seat covers (or a piece of toilet paper) in the powder roomfor the door handle. No one has ever documented transmission of an infectious agent from a toilet seat, but the door handle is a different story.
- Wash your hands after being in the bathroom. Use a paper towel or blow dryer to dry them.
- Use your elbow to exit the bathroom door. Most bacteriologists agree that the door handle or knob is the greatest concern.
Protect others, too. Stay home when you first become ill. That’s when bacteria and viruses are most infectious. If you must come to work, avoid handshakes, using another’s phone, eating from the office candy jar, etc. And wash your hands often.
“I don’t want to be paranoid or alarmist,” Dr. Reynolds says. “But the evidence is there that when we teach people how to wash their hands, the incidence of disease goes down.” (Italics added.)
Don’t be neurotic about germs. Be smart. And go wash your hands.
Source: Precker, Michael “Can your office make you sick?” The Dallas Morning News HR News Wire, shrm.org.
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