Preventing the Spread of Bacteria in Your Office
Unless you happen to work at a biohazard containment facility, you wouldn't think that your workplace can make you sick. Whether it's due to a nanovirus resulting from improper personal hygiene, or perhaps from listeria lurking in the office fridge, it's all too easy to become unwell as a direct result of your working environment. So how exactly can your workplace become more sanitary?
Wash Your Hands
It might be disconcerting to think that your office is unhygienic at a bacterial level, but it's just a matter of implementing the best practice for overcoming this, both in what is expected from your staff, as well as when it comes to office cleaning. The best starting point might seem almost patronising, but you should consider installing a sign in your workplace toilets, instructing staff to wash their hands after use. While such an instruction cannot be enforced, a plain reminder might be enough to remind staff about hand hygiene, preventing bacteria from being directly deposited onto doorknobs, keyboards and essentially any shared object they will come into contact with.
Touch and Spread
Even when limiting the spread of potential contaminants, there are parts of the office that are going to be rather unhygienic. Whether you take care of it yourself or outsource your office cleaning, doorknobs should be cleaned with an antibacterial wipe as part of your daily routine. Each keyboard and mouse should also be periodically disinfected. The same goes for shared office equipment, such as printers and photocopiers. If your office utilises hotdesking, consider providing antibacterial wipes to allow workers to give their new, temporary desk a quick clean.
In the Kitchen
To prevent your office kitchen from becoming a source of illness, you need to implement a policy with your shared office fridge. This can be as straightforward as prohibiting anything being left in the fridge overnight, with a daily cleanout and disposal of the contents becoming part of your cleaning process. This will exhaustively prevent any food from going bad. Consider installing a dishwasher if you don't already have one. This is great for keeping mugs, plates and utensils clean and hygienic. The heat from the dishwasher's drying cycle will sterilise its contents.
Nobody wants a dirty workplace, but when much of that is at a bacterial level, you just need to introduce a few basic guidelines to manage the hygiene of your workplace.
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