Where would you rather have lunch? Is your preference to eat at your office desk or eat your meal sat on the toilet?
I guess most of you would choose to eat at your office desk, wouldn’t you? I might be able to persuade you differently. Did you know that there is more bacteria on your average office desk than on a toilet seat? Arizona University researchers collected swabs from around one hundred offices right across the US and on analysis found there was over 400 times as much bacteria on the office desk as on the average toilet seat. Does your Aberdeen office cleaner clean the office desk properly?
However, I have news for you that computer keyboard that is sitting in front of you right now had on average around 3,300 microbes per square inch. Your mouse is a little cleaner with only around 1700 Concerned pick up that telephone to get new office cleaners and you will find you are putting over 25,000 microbes per square inch being placed beside your mouth and ears.
The Alba Office Cleaning company regularly visits offices across Aberdeen to speak to staff who use a different contract cleaning company and occasionally finds a place where cleaning priorities are not fully worked out.
I remember hearing from a typist who was complaining that the office cleaners had left the waste paper bin on a chair and how inconvenient that had been for her having to put it on the floor beside the desk. The cleaner had probably lifted the office bin to empty it and ensure the area was vacuumed (believe me I have seen office cleaners who would have vacuumed around it rather than move it for cleaning).
I asked her which was the most important job for the cleaner in the office around the desks. To be told to make sure that the bins were emptied and the floor was cleaned every day but office staff would clear their own desk so papers were not disturbed. I asked her to move a few papers back and spread out some clean paper in front of her. I then lifted the keyboard and tipped it upside over the clean paper and gave it a few gentle smacks to loosen the dirt and crumbs that were lying inside it. After speaking about some other cleaning priorities and the stats I quoted above we signed a cleaning contract to provide that office with a regular cleaning contract which included the desk-tops and computer equipment using our own specialist cleaning staff.
Yes, visitors to your office expect to see a clean office environment and their first impressions do count but office managers should also be thinking about the health and safety or even welfare of their own staff as well.
