You wouldn’t dream of going to work without having a shower, wearing deodorant or brushing your teeth. General hygiene is important to most people, but if you eat at your desk, use a photocopier, or pick up the phone, chances are you’re coming into disgustingly close contact with an alarming array of bacteria and dirt. Viking Direct conducted a scientific experiment that involved regular office equipment, petri dishes (and a strong stomach to see the results). Taking a cotton swab, samples were taken from a number of key office equipment and areas including the photocopier, telephone, computer mouse, keyboard and desk. The samples were then sent off to a lab for the scientific part that might just make you shudder when you realise what you’re likely touching: Computer Mouse The team took a sample of an average mouse and compared it to a mouse that had just been wiped down before… Proof that cleaning your equipment is kind of essential. The Desk/ Copier The desk showed the largest range of bacteria and fungi that is growing on the surface on a daily basis. This could be down to dining ‘al desko’, while copiers reported high volumes of fungus. Viking Direct added: “We concluded that this was likely due the fact it's used by a wide variety of people but hadn't been assigned to anybody to be cleaned regularly. When we considered this point against the ease with which illnesses can spread, we realised that the copier would be a prime point of contagion.” Pen/ Pencils If you’re guilty of chewing on your pen or pencil, we have one word of advice: STOP. STOP RIGHT NOW. Chewed pends and pencils harbour germs for longer, with the contaminated area then being placed back inside your mouth. “The problem here is that, if you chew your pen, you're essentially creating a point of contagion that you then carry around with you. Lend it to a colleague and you could be exposing them to something that makes them ill.” *Throws all pens in bin* Phone/ keyboards The phone and keyboard were surprisingly clean in comparison to other office equipment. Although they’re clearly not as bacteria infested as that stationary drawer, Viking Direct attributed the fact that these were probably the items most cleaned by staff. Or maybe they just didn’t see the crumbs under our keyboard. So the lesson we’re taking from all of this? Start wiping down our desks, always wash our hands after using the copier and under no circumstances are we lending our pens to a chewer. You know who you are.