(Published December 15, 2008)
Sing with me: "Sore throat burning like an open fire, cold germs dripping from your nose…." Yes, it's the holiday season, but unfortunately, it's also cold and flu season. So while a few of the employees who call in sick during this period may actually be playing hooky at the mall, chances are, most of them really are stuck at home in bed, miserable.
But did it ever occur to you that those sickly employees could very well turn around and point their finger at YOU for getting them sick in the first place? Well, okay, maybe not you, personally, but your workplace. According to Dr. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, every workplace has tons of microbes, and the shift that occurred in the last century from outdoor work to a more intimate office environment has led us to share our germs more than ever before.
But some workplaces are far germier than others. Gerba and ABC News came up with a list of the "10 most germy jobs," where taking extra care to stay healthy should be a daily concern:
- Teacher or Day Care Aide (kids being notorious germ-spreaders)
- Bank Employee or Cashier (constant contact with both germy customers and filthy money)
- Tech Support or Computer Repairman (computer keyboards can be germier than toilet seats because they are so seldom cleaned)
- Doctor or Nurse (constant exposure to sick people)
- Lab Scientist (accidental exposure to pathogens)
- Police Officer or Public Safety Officer (put others' safety before their own)
- Animal Control Officer (exposure to sick animals, dead animals, and animal waste)
- Janitor or Plumber (working in restrooms – need I say more?)
- Sanitation Worker (working with solid waste)
- Meatpacker (working with carcasses teeming with salmonella and E. coli bacteria)
The good news: HR positions are not on the list. But the bad news is that some of those germy jobs may be held by some of your employees, who may be unaware of their daily exposure risk.
So how do you help keep employees, and yourself, healthy? While there are no guarantees, a lot of sicknesses can seemingly be prevented by doing one very simple act, something that our mothers taught us when we were still knee-high to a grasshopper: Wash your hands! That doesn't mean putting them under a sink for 3.2 seconds before wiping them on your (dirty) pants and going on your merry way; you need to wash vigorously with soap and running water for at least 20 seconds, say experts. (Awesome tip from the CDC: Sing "Happy Birthday" all the way through twice to gauge the right amount of time.) Alcohol-based hand sanitizers aren't as effective, but can still be used when you don't have immediate access to running water.
Other preventive measures to pass on to employees (and to use yourself):
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
- Keep your own workspace clean (e.g., desk, keyboard, phone, etc.).
- Promptly throw out food before it spoils.
- Use tissues instead of handkerchiefs, and throw them out immediately after using them.
- Beware of communal "hot spots" (e.g., door handles, "copy" button on the copier, "enter" and "send" buttons on the fax machine).
Good, common sense advice, right? Sadly, the irony hasn't escaped me that as I write this, I'm on a regimen of antibiotics, trying to get over yet another bacterial sinus infection…so I'd better start practicing what I preach!
Eileen Mager
Writer
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