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While it may not be possible to provide tips for preventing office pests of the two-legged kind, it is indeed possible to prevent office infestations caused by other kinds of pests.
Infestations of rodents, cockroaches, fleas, flies and ants are an endless source of confrontation at the office when they are caused by poor office hygiene such as the failure to keep common food and drink preparation areas clean and tidy.
The uncommonly wet and humid weather conditions being experienced in much of the country at present has also increased the likelihood of infestations due to dirty workplace surfaces such as desks, counters and floors.
Alan Fainman, Managing Director of Bidvest Steiner, gives these practical suggestions for preventing the spread of workplace pests:
1. Take time out to eat away from your desk.
Aside from the productivity benefits associated with taking a regular lunch break, this will prevent crumbs accumulating in your keyboard and reduce the chances of nasty pests being attracted to your work area.
We have all heard that there are more bacteria lurking on keyboards than on toilets and the reason for this is directly related to the yummy food sources that are available from A to Z.
2. Don’t hoard food in your desk.
While it is tempting to have ready access to sandwich spreads, cookies and so on without having to break a sweat walking to the kitchen, you really should confine food to dedicated preparation areas that are regularly cleaned.
3. Make sure cleaners can access the area immediately around you.
Don’t be tempted to wave away the cleaners because you are too busy to clean up your desk.
Taking the time to ensure they have ready access to your work surfaces will save you the embarrassment of a cockroach scuttling across your desk!
4. The bin liner is your friend in hygiene.
We’ve all been tempted to throw waste directly into a newly-emptied bin at home without taking the effort to replace the bin liner. Don’t do this at work where your better half is unable to scold you for being lazy and the bin is likely to fill up without the benefit of a liner keeping the inside clean.
5. This one may seem counter-intuitive: Don’t allow employees to have their own crockery and cutlery.
Conventional wisdom has it that we are more likely to look after things we own. Unfortunately, when it comes to coffee mugs, for example, employees are often happy to re-use their own unwashed mugs.
When they know someone else is likely to use a mug they have just used, a sense of embarrassment often encourages them to ensure it is clean.
Finally, one often-overlooked reason for employers to ensure office pests are kept at bay is that many employees have a very real phobia when it comes to spiders, mice and so on.
Don’t let a valuable employee slip away simply because the company tolerated “a few crumbs here and there”. As we have seen above, zero tolerance of poor workplace food hygiene translates into zero pests.
Infestations of rodents, cockroaches, fleas, flies and ants are an endless source of confrontation at the office when they are caused by poor office hygiene such as the failure to keep common food and drink preparation areas clean and tidy.
The uncommonly wet and humid weather conditions being experienced in much of the country at present has also increased the likelihood of infestations due to dirty workplace surfaces such as desks, counters and floors.
Alan Fainman, Managing Director of Bidvest Steiner, gives these practical suggestions for preventing the spread of workplace pests:
1. Take time out to eat away from your desk.
Aside from the productivity benefits associated with taking a regular lunch break, this will prevent crumbs accumulating in your keyboard and reduce the chances of nasty pests being attracted to your work area.
We have all heard that there are more bacteria lurking on keyboards than on toilets and the reason for this is directly related to the yummy food sources that are available from A to Z.
2. Don’t hoard food in your desk.
While it is tempting to have ready access to sandwich spreads, cookies and so on without having to break a sweat walking to the kitchen, you really should confine food to dedicated preparation areas that are regularly cleaned.
3. Make sure cleaners can access the area immediately around you.
Don’t be tempted to wave away the cleaners because you are too busy to clean up your desk.
Taking the time to ensure they have ready access to your work surfaces will save you the embarrassment of a cockroach scuttling across your desk!
4. The bin liner is your friend in hygiene.
We’ve all been tempted to throw waste directly into a newly-emptied bin at home without taking the effort to replace the bin liner. Don’t do this at work where your better half is unable to scold you for being lazy and the bin is likely to fill up without the benefit of a liner keeping the inside clean.
5. This one may seem counter-intuitive: Don’t allow employees to have their own crockery and cutlery.
Conventional wisdom has it that we are more likely to look after things we own. Unfortunately, when it comes to coffee mugs, for example, employees are often happy to re-use their own unwashed mugs.
When they know someone else is likely to use a mug they have just used, a sense of embarrassment often encourages them to ensure it is clean.
Finally, one often-overlooked reason for employers to ensure office pests are kept at bay is that many employees have a very real phobia when it comes to spiders, mice and so on.
Don’t let a valuable employee slip away simply because the company tolerated “a few crumbs here and there”. As we have seen above, zero tolerance of poor workplace food hygiene translates into zero pests.
