Germs are a fact of life. As customers and employees walk around your facility, they’ll inevitably contribute to the spread of pathogens. But instead of staying home for good, a combination of professional disinfecting services and five personal habit changes can keep you covered.
The Importance of Fighting Germs at Work
If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that cleanliness should be a top priority for any office. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, 2.1 million people reported illness in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly increased that rate of illness, so now more than ever, it’s vital to practice workplace cleanliness. Here are five easy tips you can use to do your part.
5 Ways To Prevent Spreading Germs in the Workplace
When it comes to large-scale office cleaning, investing in a commercial cleaning company is the best choice. But for day-to-day cleanliness, you can do your part by using these five simple strategies.
Disinfect High-Touch Surfaces
You touch surfaces like countertops, doorknobs, and light switches every day when going about your business—and so does every other person in your office. Every time an employee pours their morning coffee, hunts for lunchtime plasticware, or opens the refrigerator, pathogens pile up.
Spot cleaning these surfaces regularly with disinfecting wipes can go a long way towards preventing the spread of germs. To fight germs at work effectively, experts recommend starting at the cleanest area of the surface and moving towards the dirtiest part in an S-shaped pattern.
Create an Office Cleaning Checklist
Keeping track of all these cleaning tasks may feel like a lot of work. Streamlining the process with an office cleaning checklist can eliminate the stress. When taking on germs at work, consider segmenting tasks into a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Daily tasks can be simple routines for common germ hotspots, like dusting furniture or spot cleaning high-touch surfaces. Weekly and monthly activities can be bigger picture things like vacuuming or mopping. If the more serious cleaning becomes too much, don’t fret—a reliable commercial cleaning provider can focus on more intensive tasks like deep cleaning, leaving you more time for the easy stuff.
Stay Stocked on Personal Sanitation Items
It may sound like an obvious solution, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to fall behind on stocking or replacing your supplies. The battle against germs at work requires a variety of cleaning items in your arsenal. You can use simple equipment like paper towels and glass cleaner for a bulk of the window cleaning, while disinfecting wipes are the champions of high-touch surface cleaning.
Using paper towels in your office bathrooms over air dryers is a significantly more sanitary method of cleaning your hands. A recent study from the American Society for Microbiology shows that hand dryers are far more likely to spread airborne bacteria around your hands than get rid of them.
Empty Your Trash Frequently
You can actually find one of the most concentrated areas of germs at work underneath your desk. That’s right—when filled with tissues, old lunch leftovers, and the like, wastebaskets can be some of the biggest hotspots for bacteria.
A combination of frequent disposal and durable plastic trash bags keeps your bin spotless. Humans aren’t perfect though, and sometimes we’re not on top of our chores. With a commercial cleaning company that provides day porter services, even the simplest cleaning tasks can be handled for you.
Practice Personal Hygiene
While most of these tips center around keeping your wider workspace clean, there are many methods you can use to reduce the amount of germs you’re exposed to. The simplest and most effective thing you can do is wash your hands. The CDC recommends this as the first and foremost method to prevent the spread of germs at work. If frequent trips to the bathroom are out of the question (and might look a little strange to your co-workers), keeping a bottle of hand sanitizer on your desk for intermittent hand washing is a decent alternative.
Pathogens spread just as easily through the air as they do through touch, which means coughing and sneezing are other culprits of workplace sickness. Covering your mouth with a tissue or a non-contact part of your body like your forearm is one of the simpler ways to prevent the spread of germs. Whether it’s cold and flu season or a balmy day in the summer, taking the extra time to stay on top of your personal hygiene is vital to keeping you and your teammates safe and healthy.
Turn to Pro Squared Janitorial for Daily Office Cleaning Services
Even with doing your part in the fight against office illness, you’re still just one person. Combining personal hygiene strategies with a comprehensive plan from a commercial cleaning provider can help you achieve superb sanitation. To fend off germs at work, partner with Pro Squared Janitorial. We deliver a full range of commercial cleaning solutions, including carpet and floor cleaning, disinfecting, day porter and nightly janitorial work, and more.
Our team specializes in cleaning high-traffic spaces where germ transmission is common, such as medical facilities and large corporate offices. We’re equipped to reduce germs at work in any industry, so your employees and customers feel comfortable and safe in your space. Whether you need daily disinfecting services or the occasional deep cleaning, we can help.
If you’re ready for a cleaning partnership that frees you from spots, stains, and stress, partner with Pro Squared. Reach out to us today to learn more about how we can enhance your commercial cleaning efforts and reduce common germs at work.
