Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Wellbeing

Office hygiene: dirty desks

by Personnel Today 3 Apr 2007
by Personnel Today 3 Apr 2007

It may have come as some surprise to the female-dominated profession of HR that, according to new research by the University of Arizona, women’s desks harbour more germs than men’s, and the average office desktop has 400 times more bacteria than a toilet seat.


Women have three to four times the number of bacteria in, on and around their desks as men do, the study by Professor Charles Gerba showed. “I thought for sure men would be germier,” he says. “But women have more interactions with small children, and they keep food in their desks. The other problem is make-up.” And although women’s desks typically look cleaner, their tendency to use cosmetics or hand lotions means that germs actually travel around more easily.


Women also eat a lot more food at their desks. “I was really surprised how much food there was in a woman’s desk,” says Gerba. “If there’s ever a famine, that’s the first place I’ll look for food.” Gerba also found that hygiene deteriorated with bad weather, as more people would stay at their desks for lunch.


But women can’t be blamed for the entire workplace grime epidemic. Overall, men’s wallets were found to be the worst germ offenders, while second were hand-held computer gadgets such as BlackBerries. However, women were more prepared to tackle desktop hygiene.


“Women’s desks were dirtier, but they did make an effort to clean them,” says Gerba. “Men never seemed to clean anything, and if they did then they used an old towel or something, which made the problem worse.”


Seb Bailey, director of training consultancy The Mind Gym, believes that desk cleanliness is more to do with personality type than gender.


“Polychrons, or multi-taskers, are more likely to have a messier desk as they start a task, then move onto something else, then go back to the first task. Monochrons will start a task and finish it.


“Women have more of a tendency to polychronicity, doing things like sending e-mails while on the phone and eating a sandwich.”


There is a positive for the polychrons among us, though. “A little bit of chaos is good,” says Bailey. “It shows creativity by helping you make connections. It’s better than being clinically clean and tidy.”


HR director Sharon Benson, who works for Trinity-Chiesi Pharmaceuticals, says she would only intervene about the state of someone’s desk if she saw “cups with penicillin growing in them”. “I think women tend to be untidier, as we have more happening on our desks, but it’s surprising that our desks are less clean.


“I think dirty desks result either from having so much on the go that the lack of hygiene is an oversight, or people just being lazy,” she adds. “We have to send e-mails to staff saying ‘put your cups back in the kitchen’, and any food left in the fridge gets chucked out on a Friday.”


Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

So does HR set a good example? Benson freely admits that her own desk is “an embarrassing sight”, so perhaps not.




  • Use a disinfectant wipe once a day on your desk, phone, computer mouse, keyboard and desk drawer


  • Don’t store food in drawers as it makes them mouldy


  • Bin anything edible in the fridge or on your desk on Friday that’s been there since Monday


  • Use hand sanitisers regularly


  • Wash your hands often


  • View desk hygiene as a regular task, not something to do in the gap between Christmas and New Year

By Lucy Freeman

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Teacher at centre of veil row loses dismissal appeal against former employer Kirklees Council
next post
Hamburg’s Vocational School for Gastronomy and Nutrition launches doner kebab production course

You may also like

Welfare cuts would ‘undermine workforce inclusion and business...

27 Jun 2025

One in four young workers rate mental health...

17 Jun 2025

CIPD Festival of Work: ‘Wellbeing is not an...

11 Jun 2025

Employers must offer more flexibility to working carers,...

9 Jun 2025

CIPD: A quarter feel work has negative impact...

9 Jun 2025

Why cash lump sums may not be the...

5 Jun 2025

Sickness absence falls to almost pre-pandemic rate

4 Jun 2025

One-third have witnessed substance abuse at work

3 Jun 2025

Preparing for a new era of workforce planning...

3 Jun 2025

Three ways technology can boost wellbeing outcomes

27 May 2025

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+