We spend a huge amount of time in our offices, so it’s important that they are clean, safe and pleasant places to be. But how clean is your office really? We’ve put together a quick quiz to help you decipher whether there are any changes you might need to make to your office cleaning schedule!
How many times a week do you eat lunch at your desk?
A- Never
B – Once or twice
C – Pretty much every day
When was the last time you cleaned your keyboard?
A – Within the last month
B – Within the last year
C – Do what?
How long has that pile of papers been sitting in the back corner of your desk?
A – What pile of papers?
B – I do a clear out every month.
C – It just keeps growing.
How often does your office get a full, top to bottom clean?
A – Every night
B – Once a week
C – Once a month or less
OK, so this test wouldn’t be the hardest to cheat on if you were looking to score 100% for cleanliness. But no one’s going to check your answers. What we will do though is explain why each one is important. And hopefully convince you that and thing you answered ‘A’ to, might be worth looking at!
Q1 – How often do you eat lunch at your desk?
As you might have guessed, never is the right answer here. Firstly, because getting up and away from your desk has been shown to increase your productivity, creativity and happiness levels. But also because the average desk has been shown to have more bacteria than the average toilet seat. 7,500 per swab, as opposed to 5,400. Eating lunch at your desk exposes you to a serious amount of bacteria, and the crumbs from your lunch will only add to this. Our advice? Do anything you can to avoid eating lunch at your desk. Go for a walk; head to the cafeteria or communal kitchen; eat at a colleague’s desk (only kidding with that last one!). Not only will you be healthier, happier and more productive, but you’ll be avoiding some seriously high levels of bacteria.
Q2 – When was the last time you cleaned your keyboard?
This might seem like an arduous task. And that’s because it is. But with 3,000 bacteria per square inch on the average computer keyboard it’s one worth doing. Many of us spend the majority of our working days in contact with our keyboards. So our keyboards become a repository for all the bacteria our hands come into contact with during the course of a day: food, door handles, our own sweat… have we convinced you to give your keyboard a bit of a clean yet? To do so, make sure your computer is turned off then give it a shake to remove any larger crumbs etc. Then take a cloth or swab and dip it lightly into a sanitising solution. Rub this over and around all the keys and leave your keyboard to dry.
Q3 – How long has that pile of papers been sitting on your desk?
For all the talk of a paperless office, it’s not quite a reality for many of us yet. And that’s good news for bacteria. The tiny spaces between leaves of paper provide bacteria with just the right conditions they need to breed – warm, dark and undisturbed. Not only will a clean, uncluttered desk help you feel more productive and creative, but you are also eliminating bacterial breeding grounds when you empty your out tray.
Q4 – How often does your office get a full, top to bottom clean?
Now – being a cleaning company providing the aforementioned top to bottom office cleaning services, you might guess we’d say this one is important. But don’t just take our word for it. Research carried out by office resource provider Hloom has identified the 5 most bacteria-prone areas in an office environment. All 5 are communal facilities. And all 5 would be targeted by a good cleaning contractor to significantly reduce levels of bacteria. Check out the infographic below to see the top 5 bacteria hotspots in an office.
And just before you do – don’t forget that JDK Cleaning offer a full range of office cleaning services. We’d love to help make your office a cleaner, healthier and happier place to work. Give us a call for a free quote.
Here’s that Hloom research:
