Sharing office supplies ‘could lead to illness’

The practice of sharing office supplies through hot-desking is looked upon with suspicion by many employees, according to new research.

A study commissioned by Durable UK found that 71 per cent of office workers believed that regularly using the same office machines as others could be spreading germs and propagating illness.

And 80 per cent said that office supplies at their workstations are shared with at least one other colleague.

TV cleanliness expert Kim Woodburn fronts Durable UK’s campaign for cleaner office equipment.

"Desks can be filthy things and any item resting upon them harbours untold amounts of grime and bacteria," she said.

"If you’re going to put your dirty hands on keyboards and sneeze while you’re on the phone, there’s no doubt that you’ll expose your equipment to all sorts of unpleasant organisms."

She added that the time has come to "tackle this problem head on".

The survey also revealed that workers were a bit lax with the cleaning of their own office supplies, with less than one in five saying that their keyboard was clean and the majority waiting for more than two weeks’ worth of dirt to build up at their workstation before taking action.

National Computer Cleaning Week takes place from September 17th to 22nd.

At Paperstone we can supply your firm with a wide selection of office supplies.