With sick season all around us, it is important to remember the significance of eliminating germs in our workplaces. Working in an office, some of us are easily prone to catch whatever bug our cubicle neighbor brings in with them. Think about it—we share keyboards, phones, staplers, faucets, door handles, keys, and many other common office items with our coworkers. These common items share and grow millions of germs every day.

Did you know that there are 21,000 germs per square inch that exist on your desktop alone? This can infect and affect us in many different ways. 62% of Americans eat lunch at their desk, and we touch our faces on an average of 16 times per hour. The millions of bacteria crawling on our desk moves to our hands, then to our food, then to our faces. We unknowingly pass germs onto our selves, and on to others nearly every hour of every day. Germs carry the main ingredients that give us common colds and other sicknesses. And on average, 1 out of 3 Americans go to work when sick. This not only puts an airborne risk out to our coworkers, but it spreads the germs to our phones, our computers, our door handles, and other common office items.

As we all know, nothing slows down your productivity at work like getting sick. And we’re spreading the germs that make us sick so easily, every day. Forbes has created a list of the 10 Worst Germ Hot Spots as follows:

1. Cell Phones
2. Gas Pumps
3. Restaurant Menus
4. Lemon and Lime Wedges
5. Condiment Dispensers
6. Restroom Door Handles
7. Grocery Carts
8. Airplanes
9. Free Food
10. Escalators

These are all items that we come into contact with on a highly regular basis. We touch these items and touch our faces, or makeup, or toothbrushes, or other frequently-used items, and unknowingly increase the spread of these germs that make us ill. The most common item, and one of the biggest hosts for bacteria on the above list, is the cell phone. It has been found that an average cell phone carries 18 times more potentially harmful germs than a flush handle on a men’s toilet in a public bathroom. Think about it; we take our cell phones everywhere we go. We put them in pockets or purses, right next to loose change (that came from God knows where), we put them on any and every surface (such as countertops, park benches, tables at our favorite restaurants), we constantly drop them on the floor, we carry them with us during our commute on the bus or in our cars, we hop right back onto them after pumping gas; we take them everywhere. And then we touch them, without a second thought.

While we will never be able to fully de-germinate ourselves and our workplaces, it is important to take small steps to try to avoid, or at least hinder spreading germs and sickness to ourselves and the people we work with. Here are some simple rules to follow in the work place in order to eliminate germs:

• Wash your hands repeatedly
• Disinfect items that you use regularly, such as your cell phone or tablet/laptop, on a regular basis
• Place hand sanitizer where colleagues can see them
• Wash your hands repeatedly
• Sanitize surfaces on a regular basis
• Eat away from your desk
• Stay home if you’re sick
• Wash your hands repeatedly

Did we mention, wash your hands repeatedly?  This is the number one way to hinder the spread of germs. Germs are spread so quickly, and so easily, and can have many negative effects on us. But by acknowledging them, and taking action to slow down the spread of them, we can avoid getting sick, as well as avoid harboring habitats for the germs to continue to grow. Germs are often overlooked because of their size, and because they are everywhere. But when we try to eliminate them, we are helping not only ourselves from getting sick, but our coworkers, as well.