A Few Tips to Help Prevent the Spread of Flu in an Office

A survey carried out by Staples Advantage, the business to business department of Staples Inc., shows a surprising lack of cleanliness in the office. The survey consisted of 150 employees and revealed that 70% of them admitted to coming into work while sick. The main reason for this is the pressure of deadlines or they felt the need to “ride it out”. While this may seem like a good attitude to have, they are actually spreading the virus and causing other people to become ill. The survey also concluded that only 15% of people actually cleaned their office desk daily.

Other statistics include less than 10% of people clean their desks with disinfectants or sanitizing products, which is very concerning as 90% of people admitted to actually eating at their workstations whilst sitting on their office chairs. So what can we do to help prevent the spread of diseases in our dirty offices?

Firstly washing your hands regularly is the most important thing. Your hands are the part of your body that comes into contact with dirty objects, so keeping them clean will severly reduce the risk of spread.

Another thing you can do is to clean areas within your office that are being touched on a regular basis, for example door handles and lift buttons.

Using the technology we have available it is easy to stay at home and carry on with your work. By setting up a home office, you can work from home when you are ill which means you can quarantine yourself and not infect others.

So really the answer is simple. Adopt a regular cleaning regime and spend ten minutes at the end of your day to clean your workstation or desk. You can even give your pedestal, filing cabinet or other storage a wipe too to further maintain the cleanliness. Finally if you are sick, work from home!