Shopping Cart Get out the Lysol, Purell, and hand soap- it’s germ season! It’s not enough to cover your mouth when you cough, and take your vitamin C, you still need to remember TO WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER USING THE BATHROOM! Sounds like a simple habit but according to an SCA survey 68% of office workers said they have seen their co-workers NOT
wash their hands after using the restroom. SICK! Check out the rest of the article below or read it here. And if this sounds like your office, order some of our cleaning products by clicking here, we don’t want that Swine Flu coming back…
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — “Employees must wash their hands” is a sign we have all seen in restaurant bathrooms, but we may soon need these signs in the bathrooms of offices across America. According to a recent survey of American office workers by SCA, one of the world’s largest hygiene products companies, 68 percent of office workers say they have seen their co-workers not wash their hands after using the restroom. And of those that say they do wash their hands about one in five say they simply give their hands a quick rinse, regardless of what was done in the bathroom.
“We know that in some offices being willing to ‘get your hands dirty’ is a sign of a strong work ethic,” says Amy Bellcourt, vice president of SCA, “but we don’t think this is what anyone had in mind.” SCA, which manufactures the hand towels and soap found in many office and public restrooms, conducted the survey to commemorate Global Handwashing Day ( www.globalhandwashingday.org ), which falls on October 15th this year.
Office workers who admitted to not washing their hands cite a variety of reasons for committing the dirty deed, including: my hands aren’t really dirty (69%); I don’t have time (8%); there was no soap or towels (4%); and the disturbing, nobody was watching (3%).
Not surprisingly, the majority of poor bathroom hygiene habits seem to take place in the men’s room. According to the survey 75% of male office workers say they have witnessed a colleague not wash their hands, while only 61% of female office workers report seeing such a thing in the ladies room.
Interestingly, younger employees seem more likely than boomers to have good bathroom hygiene habits or at least they are more likely to notice bad behavior. In fact, of office workers who say they wash their hands regularly when using the bathroom, 76% of those under the age of 45 report seeing colleagues who did not wash their hands. Only 60% of office workers over 45 say they have noticed such behavior in the bathroom.
On a regional level, the SCA survey found that office workers who live in the Midwest are more likely than those living in the South to have noticed a co-worker not washing their hands (74 percent vs. 64 percent).
“Office workers come in contact with a lot of surfaces during the day and even though hands may not appear dirty, the potential to spread germs is high,” says SCA’s Bellcourt. “Following good handwashing practices, like washing and completely drying your hands after using the restroom, can help office workers avoid catching anything from the common cold to dangerous viruses.”
Even though office workers report seeing their co-workers not wash their hands, 38 percent say they have not confronted a co-worker simply because they didn’t know how to bring it up. At the same time, about a third of office workers who have seen co-workers not wash their hands have confronted them because they say “it’s disgusting,” according to the survey.
