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Your co-worker is coughing. Unidentified slime lurks on the office sink. One of your valued business partners spits when he talks, and you鈥檙e doing Good Will Hunting calculations to decide how far away you should stand. You have, unfortunately, just watched Contagion.

Germ-fighters, unite! The office is never fun during cold and flu season, but we have weapons in our war against disease. Whether you鈥檙e an office manager or an employee armed with rubbing alcohol, you can defeat viruses with some easy tactics. (Our article is primarily focused on cold and flu season, but you can apply the following strategies to fight COVID-19, too.) Get ready for these simple tips to sustain workplace health.

Encourage Hand-washing  

Killing germs isn鈥檛 glamorous. It does not involve fun accoutrements like stakes or silver crosses or garlic necklaces. Your weapons? Soap and water. Your reward? Saving lives.

Here are just a few reasons you should scrub up:

• Hand-washing 鈥渞educes respiratory illnesses, like colds, in the general population鈥� by 16 percent to 21 percent, .
• It can stop the spread of dangerous diseases: 鈥淒uring the SARS epidemic, hand-washing reduced the risk of transmission by 30 to 50 percent,鈥� according to .
• If everyone washed their hands regularly, it could .
   

Encourage everyone in your office to frequently wash their hands, especially in the following :

• After using the bathroom. (Apparently, and 35 percent of women skip this step.)
• Before preparing or eating food
• After touching garbage
• After blowing their nose, coughing, or sneezing
   

The way we wash our hands is also important 鈥� but if you believe , only about 5 percent of us do it right. Follow these guidelines:

• Wet your hands with water.
• Lather your hands for about 30 seconds using soap. (If you want to feel festive while you鈥檙e sudsing, sing the happy birthday song twice. That will give you about the right amount of disinfecting time and remind you of delicious birthday cake. Win-win.)
• Make sure you lather everything, including those easy-to-miss places like 鈥渢he backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails,鈥� .
• Use a clean towel to dry your hands. (Don鈥檛 trust that office towel? We don鈥檛 blame you. Air drying is also OK.)
   

Communicate proper hand-washing to your colleagues:

• Print out these . Place them in common areas such as the bathroom and kitchen.
• If you are a manager, invest in training and education on the topic of clean hands. Studies have shown that .
• Don鈥檛 limit instruction to cold and flu season. Advocate for hand-washing throughout the year with the CDC鈥檚 .
  
  

Provide Hand Sanitizer

Think of everything you touch in the office, from shared keyboards to the hand of a sniffling business partner. (You may also want to consider alternatives to the classic handshake: .) Hand sanitizer 鈥� easy to transport, discreet to dispense 鈥� has your back.

True, sanitizer isn鈥檛 as effective as soap and water, but it鈥檚 better than nothing. Look for an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol, and follow the : 鈥淎pply the product to the palm of one hand (read the label to learn the correct amount) and rub the product all over the surfaces of your hands until your hands are dry.鈥� Make sure you wait till it dries 鈥� 鈥� if you want it to work.

If you are in leadership, consider implementing a hand sanitation program. For example, one company 鈥渋nstalled hand-sanitizing stations in high-traffic common areas, conference rooms and break rooms, and gave hand sanitizer bottles and hand sanitizing wipes to each individual,鈥� according to this U.S. News & World Report article. Just for offices with such programs:

• A 24 percent reduction in health care claims for diseases such as colds and flu
• More than a 13 percent reduction in 鈥渦nscheduled paid time off鈥�
• Eighty percent of employees 鈥渋ndicated that having access to hand sanitizer positively impacted their impression of their employer.鈥�
  
  

Don鈥檛 Touch Your Face

If you鈥檙e like most people, you touch your face 23 times every hour, according to a study cited in this Washington Post . But if you learn how to stop, it鈥檚 鈥渢he one behavior that would be better than any vaccine ever created,鈥� says an expert quoted in the article.

How do you stop?

• on a Post-it note and put it within eyesight. (Yes, your co-workers will have questions. But they might just learn something.)
• to reduce anxiety (which is one reason we touch our faces).
• to give your hands something to do.
  
  

Cough Like Dracula  

There鈥檚 a right way to cover your cough or sneeze 鈥� and there鈥檚 a wrong way. 

• Don鈥檛 simply use your hand. (Think of everything you might touch after you sneeze into your palm.)
• Instead, if you have to cough or sneeze, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue; then throw away the tissue in a garbage can. Disinfect your hands.
• No tissue handy? Cough or sneeze into your elbow. (This method has been called cough because it looks like a vampire hiding in its cape.)
   

How do you get colleagues to comply?

• Again, education is key. Post signs and host trainings.
• Make sure tissues and garbage cans are easily accessible for all employees. You can also provide face masks.
   

Disinfect Surfaces

Prepare yourself. You are going to read some very gross facts about beloved office objects:

• Would you rest your cheek against a toilet seat? Your phone boasts , according to a study quoted in Time. The same article suggests that you clean your phone with a microfiber cloth dipped in a mixture of 60 percent water and 40 percent rubbing alcohol. (If that mixture sounds too complicated, you can use. Disinfect your phone once a day, especially during cold and flu season.)
• The desk you鈥檙e leaning on right now has .
• If your desk is that gross, just think what your keyboard contains. Luckily, you can clean it with some rubbing alcohol and a microfiber cloth. (Read this New York Times for more detailed instructions.)
• That office mug you hope your co-worker washed? Please don鈥檛 spit out your coffee all over your newly cleaned keyboard, but the mug may have on it. (Time to bring a thermos from home.)
• Before you rush to the kitchen to wash your office mug, examine that sponge. The average kitchen sponge is home to 鈥�.鈥� Just think of the bacteria your office sponge hosts. Experts recommend you .
• After reading these facts, you may want to grab your briefcase and bolt for your nice, clean home. Pause before punching the first-floor elevator button. It has more than 600 bacteria per square inch.

You get the idea: Make sure you are frequently disinfecting common areas (including door handles). You can also distribute disinfectant wipes to employees so they can take matters into their own hands, especially after reading this post.

Stay Home When Sick.

If you鈥檙e sick, stay home. This reduces the chance you鈥檒l infect others.

Of course, this requires approval from your supervisors. Managers, it鈥檚 crucial you take these steps:

• Offer paid sick leave, and encourage employees to take it.
• Provide flexible work-from-home policies, and make it clear that if an employee is unwell, they should work from their couch.

If you do this, you will literally be saving lives. 鈥淔lu rates would fall 5 percent if paid sick leave were universal,鈥� explains this New York Times . 鈥淎ccording to one estimate, an additional seven million people contracted the H1N1 flu virus in 2009 because employees came to work while infected. The illnesses led to 1,500 additional deaths.鈥�

Have a Preparedness Plan for Emergencies

What happens if your business faces a possible , such as COVID-19? Review these preparedness guides designed for organizations:

For example, one way you can reduce the transfer of disease is to limit the number of employees gathered together. (The CDC suggests you can replace 鈥渋n-person meetings with video or telephone conferences and increase teleworking options.鈥�)

Although planning for these scenarios is scary, it鈥檚 better to be prepared. If you鈥檙e a supervisor, communicate to your team how the company is prioritizing worker health and safety.

We鈥檙e Here to Help

Do you want a cheat sheet of these tips? Are you hoping you can email it to your co-workers and get Hand Cougher Bob to stop his bad habits? Do you plan to distribute it discreetly near the bathroom? Are you recruiting colleagues for a heist to hide the office sponge? We鈥檝e got your back.

At USF鈥檚 Office of Corporate Training and Development, our goal is to build a world-class workforce in the Tampa Bay area. We hope our tips have helped you maintain a healthier office environment, and we鈥檙e here to support you in any way we can. Explore our professional development programs, or contact us at 813-974-0950. Stay well!