Tis’ the season for the office and workplace to be full of sniffly noses, scratchy throats, cacophonous coughing, and blowing noses. Germs, bacteria and disease are being spread all around the desks, common areas and work sites. Not only is this bad for hygiene and work productivity, sometimes it’s downright GROSS. According to infectioncontroltoday.com, the Cintas Corporation did a survey to find out the most common and “grossest” workplace habits.
To identify which behavior Americans cite as the “grossest,” Cintas Corporation facilitated a survey conducted online by Harris Oct. 23-27, 2014 among 2,011 adults ages 18 and older. The study found that of the 81 percent of Americans who have witnessed a gross workplace habit, the majority concluded that the act of wiping a runny nose on one’s hands or sleeve is the grossest.
The “grossest” workplace habits are:
1. Wiping runny nose on hands or sleeve: 16%
2. Not covering mouth/nose when sneezing: 15%
3. Not covering mouth when coughing: 12%
4. Not washing hands frequently: 9%
5. Leaving dirty tissues on desk: 8%
If you can’t get your “gross” co-workers to change their bad hygiene behaviors then you need to see about making some changes in the office to protect yourself and others from giving each other colds and flu. Cintas suggests increasing hand sanitation practices and overall improvement in office cleaning and sanitation.
“Although hand hygiene is an important step in preventing the spread of infections and bacteria, facilities also need to plan for additional cleaning and disinfection during cold and flu season,” adds Mesko. “Make sure your facility is ready with the proper cleaning tools, cleaning chemicals and techniques to ensure a healthy workplace.”
Clean your hands, use hand sanitizer more, clean up and wipe down your work and common areas more, and stop being so “GROSS”. Let’s not forget getting a seasonal flu shot is always a good idea to help reduce the flu bug in your office this year. For more information on flu shots and helping your office work on a program to cut down on the passing of communicable diseases like the he cold & flu between co-workers please contact OHC at ddaniel@occupationalhc.com or call 251.436.8039.
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