Personal Hygiene At Work

You would think that washing your hands is easy.  Apparently not – I had a few e-mails waiting for me asking me “how do you wash your hands” – not sure if they are in jest, but in any event I thought I’d post for you a step-by-step guide to washing your hands in ensuring Personal Hygiene at Work.

Step #1 – Wet your hands

Important – soap doesn’t lather well on dry hands.  Wet your hands, front and back.

Step #2 – Add soap

Hopefully no explanation required.

Step #3 – Lather and scrub – about 20 seconds

Simple enough.  If at all possible get under your fingernails – this is the prime area for “gunk” to build up!

Step #4 – Rinse

I was taught that you should rinse your hands under water that is hot enough as to not scald you or burn you AND that you should sing the ABC song to determine the length of time you should be washing your hands — it’s about 30-60 seconds.

Step #5 – Turn off the tap with a paper towel

You just washed your hands, right?  Why dirty them up by touching the tap?

Step #6 – Dry your hands

Simple enough.

A couple of other things – if you need to go through one or several doors on the way out of the washroom use a towel to open the doors and discard the towel once you’re out.  If it’s not possible to do this keep a hand sanitizer at your desk and use this.  I use a brand called Purell and use this diligently after coming out of the washroom, and before eating especially if I’ve gone over to the photocopier or fax machine, or been in someones office.

Now this is a simple job of washing your hands – but what do you do when somone in your office has very bad personal hygiene?  I mean – they stink, they have yellow teeth or have dandruff flaking on their clothes and all over their chairs.

I’ve seen people leave bottles of Head and Shoulders on desks, soap, calognes, perfumes — definately VERY EMBARASSING to the individual and not something I would recommend.  The solution is not easy – ideally you may want to bring it up with your manager or supervisor or HR department and allow them to address the situation.

If you take it upon yourself – you need to be gentle and have a private chat with the person.  Don’t tell them in front of anyone – it will embaress them.

“If you know what time they leave the office to walk to the tube or car park, one day you could make sure you are leaving at the same time and just fall into step with them. After the pleasantries, you could say ‘I’m going to have to tell you something because I would want someone to tell me’ – this lets you assess their reaction and stops it being quite so embarrassing. Follow this with ‘There’s a really good dry cleaners on the way to the bank’ or ‘I keep this mouthwash in my bag and I feel so much more confident if I use it before meetings’. They will probably get the hint and appreciate your carefulness – if they ask you any more, help as much as you can. If they just change the subject, don’t push it. It is likely they have taken the hint and will deal with it themselves. ” – from http://www.workrelationships.co.uk/what-to-say-when-a-colleague-has-poor-personal-hygiene.html

Dropping subtle hints around the office is not a good idea – chances are everyone knows about the issue already and doing this will only cause more embarassement for the individual.  The best solution is to speak to them.

If after speaking with them you notice that nothing is happening and the concern is widespread in that it is affecting others (a stinky person will affect others) then speak to your supervisor.  Remember the individual may have a medical condition – such as gas or other condition.

Luckily I’ve never been in the situation where I’ve had to speak to anyone about a personal hygiene issues at work.

Take care,

Mohamed