The office space supplies company Viking assessed the state of British workstations and found poor levels of hygiene are often going unnoticed and uncleaned.
Computer keyboards and desk phones are hotbeds of germs unless people keep a keen eye on the state of their immediate environment, researchers suggested.
Two-thirds of office staff admitted to eating lunch at their desks and not cleaning up afterwards, which was cited as a major issue when it comes to encouraging bacteria and spreading germs around the workplace.
IT professionals, lawyers and accountants were rated as being among the least hygienic in the UK, while social workers, for some reason, were found to be the most likely to leave mouldy food on their desks.
“Keeping equipment such as keyboards, phones and desks as germ-free as possible is even more important during the cold and flu season,” said Dr Lisa Ackerley, a chartered environmental health practitioner.
“This research has shown that there are some very unhygienic desks right now in the UK, which is very worrying as those who work in open-plan offices tend to start coming down with illnesses this time of year.”
An extensive global study carried out recently by the professional networking group LinkedIn found that German office workers are more likely than their counterparts anywhere else in the world to be annoyed by unclean communal office areas. Indian office staff meanwhile had the longest list of workplace peeves and were the most likely to be irritated by a colleague’s mobile phone ringtone.
Editor’s notes: This article was first published in October 2011 and, in the first quarter of 2020, the world was struck by a pandemic. Places of work including offices were shut down and workers were advised, if not enforced, to work from home wherever they could.
As lockdowns lifted, people were allowed to return to their offices. Workspace operators, serviced office providers and landlords made concerted efforts to make all areas as clean and hygienic as possible to reduce the risk of infection and to make occupiers feel as safe and as seen as possible. We wrote this article during the pandemic about the measures that they took.
Many of the adjustments and enhancements made are still in place today.