To suggest a correlation between Hotdesking and the spread of Australian flu?

[Undercoverbanana]

I hate Hotdesking with a passion, but AIBU to propose that we cease this ridiculous sharing of phones and keyboards/mice for the sake of each other's health?

If you are bothered, wipe them over with something.

I personally think that too much worry about coming into contact with germs is helping the spread of them. They become resistant.

Ooo, what's Australian flu?

Yes. Yabvu.
Do you wipe door handles, shopping trolleys, tv remote, and about a billion other things other people touch?

Hot desking is awful - particularly as some people leave their desks in a state with crumbs everywhere, or else festooned with trinkets and cuddly toys. I would personally throw any argument I could think of at the problem, but suspect the response would just be a mass order of anti-bacterial cleaning stuff and an instruction to clean before use.

Hotdesking just doesn't work. If you arrive late you end up working in a corridor. People with specially adjusted chairs have to go searching for them and no-one is allowed to adjust them if that person isn't in. If you are tall you have to find risers. If you are short you have to find footrests. Some people have special mice for RSI and they get lost. And the stuff I was working on yesterday??? - No fucking idea where it is. Probably acting as a coaster for someone's fucking smelly latte (coffee makes me yak).

I was just looking for a reason to stop this madness.

hot desking is really awful I agree, especially hot desking in open plan offices and yet I agree that bugs spread easier in those environments, no open windows re-cycled air, everyone coughing and spluttering urgh

Hotdesking is seen as the way forward, but gave you noticed that managers always have actual offices with their own shit in there? Mmmmmm????

YANBU. Stands to reason that the more people who touch an item, the more chance an infection can spread.

Plus, hot-desking is the ultimate "fuck you" to employees. You're so replaceable that we don't even want you to settle at a desk.

Hot desking is fine if implemented properly.

Washing your hands before you eat, should help with inflection concerns.

I agree- I think computer equipment is particularly likely to carry viruses/bugs as it's hard to clean, the keyboard is anyway and you also don't think of it as dirty so probably don't give it a wipe or wash your hands after using it either like you would if you used the bathroom (there's lots of studies that show keyboards are dirtier than toilets!)

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/this-is-how-many-germs-are-on-your-keyboard_uk_57ff9322e4b0010a7f3e12d9

To the person saying 'well you touch lots of other stuff'- I try not too, I don't touch handles on doors with my bare hands or if I do, I open them at the top (do it with my coat covering them). I don't think anyone's ever noticed. I also wash my hands when I come in from being outside in public.

I started washing my hands more after a bad year of viruses where, between little kids/schools/my workplace, I had 7 colds/flu. Now I am down to one or two a year absolute max and I almost never get sickness bugs. I'm converted to handwashing (not fanatically, just when I get in from work, before eating).

I think the phone is the worst. All that spit and hot air. Hate talky phones anyway. Fuck off - it's 2018 - email or text me.

Everywhere I’ve hotdesked, everyone has their own headset to plug into the desk phone to avoid that issue OP.

I wonder if anyone has ever done a comparative study into the spread of colds, stomach bugs etc in offices with and without hot desking? I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a higher rate of infection in hot desk environments.

As one of those "special" workers who has their own chair, mouse and keyboard, I always manage to sit at the same desk when I'm in the office.

YANBU
maybe if we all spent the first 10 mins of the working day cleaning our equipment this hot deskin madness would cease

I would argue that it takes longer than 10 minutes for everyone to find the right equipment plus all their shit.

Didn't Douglas Adams satirise humanity by telling a tale of three ships to evacuate Earth: workers, managers/ leaders, and "useless" professions like telephone ear sanitisers. The wrong co-ordinates (of the refuge planet) were given to the telephone ear-sanitiser lot... and then the human race died out anyway, thanks to an ear infection from a filthy phone!!

The flu virus is usually spread by breathing it in. Anywhere people congregate will be a target, so I don't think we can blame the desk.

Still hate having to share a desk though - I left my last job because they introduced hotdesking there.

I think people are too wound up
About this Australian flu. The media certainly hasn't helped. The daily star said it will kill 750,000 people in Britain.... that seems a tad excessive.

i hate hotdesking too and wipe everything down before use, dont care what anyone thinks. Its gross.

In department of 50 all working shifts, hot dealing has to work. Now have own head sets and hand sanitiser on every desk. Aren't most flu and colds also passed on by 'droplet' infection and therefore in the air?

hot dealing! Love that autocorrect! Hot is also right, feeling the first symptoms of the office illness doing the rounds. Flu or cold, don't fucking want it!

The daily star said it will kill 750,000 people in Britain.... that seems a tad excessive.

BBC said it killed 300 in Australia, a country with a population of 26 million. While it is sad that people died and the potential seriousness of flu shouldn't be underestimated, it does put the "deadly Aussie flu" histrionics into perspective.

We have a huge stash of anti bac wipes you can use on the mouse and keyboard and desk!

DDs science class grew bacteria from random things at school and the bugs grown from mobile phones were so nasty the school put a ban on using them in future classes. The aga plates were sent for incineration

The 'average' range of droplets from a human sneeze is approx one metre.
Some viruses can survive on a hard surface, for flu viruses that's approx 24-48 hours.the average office computer keyboard and telephone has more bacteria on it than the average lavatory seat.
People touch things, get the microorganisms on to their fingers, then transfer them to their mouths and noses. Just look at how many times some people touch their faces, without realising what they are doing.
The way to minimise transmission of infection is to: avoid touching your face with your hands, clean multiuser equipment before and after you use it, wash your hands frequently, especially after using the lavatory and before you eat.
There is a plethora of good research to back this up.
However, using the current flu outbreak to argue against hot decking? Not sure if that would work, but a place to start.
You can also find evidence about the psychological impact of hot-desking, and the financial issues of what you describe and use all the evidence to get to present an argument to your employers.
Good luck with that.