A clean workplace is a healthier and happier workplace. Germs can spread quickly through workplaces and schools and around 60 million days of school and 50 million days of work are lost every year due to the common cold sweeping through the population. Dirty carpets and dusty surfaces can also make allergies to dust, mold, or other allergens that get trapped in carpets worse. Furthermore, the air quality in a closed space can be as much as 500% worse than being outside, so regular office cleaning services can help make a big dent in improving air quality. Hiring a commercial cleaning service can help reduce the amount of sickness in your office and make the workplace a healthier environment for everyone. However, there are also steps you can take in your office to make sure that your personal space stays tidy and relatively germ free.
How Dirty is My Office?
Given the amount of germs present in any office, it’s not surprising that Americans shell out around $5 billion annually on their colds — the majority goes towards doctors’ visits and the remaining goes to treating their colds.
The average office set up — keyboard, chair, and computer mouse — have over 20,000 germs per square inch and your desk overall probably is harboring around 10 million bacteria. Office phones have over 25,000 germs per square inch and the average office worker will touch about 10 million bacteria every day.
Most people regard bathrooms to be a dirty place and take care washing their hands, but if you sneeze at your desk, you’re unlikely to get up and wash your hands afterwards, and will continue to do work, spreading germs from that sneeze onto your keyboard, mouse, and any other surfaces you touch. Now consider the amount of people in your office eating, sneezing, using the bathroom, and other various human functions, and you’ll understand how so many bacteria reside in the workplace.
How Will a Commercial Cleaning Service Help?
A commercial cleaning service will do a thorough cleaning of your office. Not only will they wipe down all the surfaces, but will mop and vacuum as well, getting rid of dust particles — which are actually made up of 70% dead skin flakes — pollen, crumbs, and other particles that get swept onto the floor over the course of the workday.
A commercial cleaning service specializes in properly sanitizing and maintaining your office environment and will take care of items that office staff might balk at — taking out the trash, doing dishes left in the sink, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. This can help raise office morale — and people do tend to work better in clean, well-kept spaces. The service will also make sure that things like toilet paper, hand towels, paper towels, and hand soap are kept stocked and available.
Ideally, employing a cleaning service will help keep employees healthier and therefore, missing less work, which increases production and income for the business itself.
What Can I Do to Keep My Space Cleaner?
If your company only retains a commercial cleaning company once a week, you may want to think about doing some basic upkeep in your own personal space. For example, if you keep antibacterial wipes or spray by your desk and disinfect your desk regularly, you can cut down on sick days in the office by 30%. Do keep in mind that antibacterial cleaner needs to be left on the surfaces for 30-60 seconds in order to be effective.
Cleaning your desk, phone, keyboard, mouse, and yes, cell phone, will keep germs from accumulating. Indeed, over half of employees eat lunch or will snack at their desk, despite the average desk having 100 times more germs than a kitchen table. Reduce the amount of germs you’re ingesting by keeping your space clean! If you take that initiatives, others may follow suit at their own desks, contributing to a healthier work environment overall.
If your company doesn’t use a commercial cleaning service, it may a good suggestion to offer at a meeting or to raise with senior management to improve working conditions and reduce sickness in the office.