Office Cleaning Hybrid work

The workforce has changed a bit since Covid  – we now have to consider Office Cleaning during Hybrid work (WFH).  Fast forward to today, and remote working and working from home are still happening, long after lockdown.

Some business leaders have worried about engagement and productivity slipping, but these worries have largely been put to rest (turns out, WFH is just as productive, if not more). And working from home is making people happier, too.

Of course, some businesses haven’t gone remote – and calls from prominent business leaders and members of the government to end all WFH have been met with both support and criticism – apart from for the hands-on jobs like ours (we can’t really do office cleaning over Zoom!), which never had a WFH option.

Welcome to the world of hybrid work; where some days are spent at the office, and some days are spent working from home. It might just be the best of both worlds – with a good split of work/life balance, and in-person collaboration.

And this has led us to think about office cleaning in a hybrid work environment. Should businesses still stick to their office cleaning schedule, or is a change now due?

We think it’s important to keep up your cleaning schedule, even in a hybrid office – because dirt and dust don’t abide by anyone’s rules. But there should be a change in the timing. Find out why we think regular cleaning needs to stay.

The way we work has changed, but dust and dirt haven’t

So you’d think that, given the lack of foot traffic and a lower number of people working in the office, there’d be less dust around.

Well, think again, because dust didn’t get the memo about hybrid working.

We’ve seen it before in deep cleans of long-term vacant buildings. Unused rooms manage to gather cobwebs and dust, even when nobody ever enters them, because dust is always being produced. Tiny microscopic organisms, pollen, book and paper fibres, loosened carpet fibres, tiny particles and pollution suspended in the air outside -all of this stuff works its way into your office. All day, all night.

That airborne dust is still going to be circulating around and settling on desks, furniture, and carpets – only this time, there aren’t as many people around to disturb the dust or brush it away while working.

If anything, the amount of dust won’t change much, but it will be far more noticeable. Not a good look when you’re finally getting back to doing face-to-face business meetings, or are interviewing your dream hire.

And even when you’ve only got a skeleton crew working on site, they’ll be tracking in mud on rainy days, dirt on dry days, and making use of the facilities – from the office toilets, to the office kitchen.

So while the rate of use may have slowed down, the microbes won’t. A dirty kitchen is a dirty kitchen, whether it gets used by 20 people or 100 people.

Plus, we can’t forget that COVID is still a thing. People are currently being infected with it, and being hospitalised by it – and it’s quite amazing how relaxed we all seem to have become with something that has contributed to millions of deaths over the last two years.

Good, hygienic office cleaning that sticks to a schedule is still essential for hybrid working offices, long after the lockdown phase.

COVID hasn’t gone away

It’s likely that hybrid working will continue to be the norm for many companies – and should COVID spike again (and hospital admissions along with it), all businesses owe it to their teams to provide a safe, clean place to work.

As infection rates rise once again, just in time for summer, it’s easy to pass off a case of the sniffles as hayfever – but it could be so much worse. By now, we all know the risks of coming into contact with COVID: from losing work, to losing our long-term health – or worse.

So, office cleaning shouldn’t be reduced, but here’s where a change should come in: keeping germs at bay is best done when office cleaning is staggered between teams entering the office.

So, for instance, if you used to clean every Monday, but your teams now rotate on Wednesdays – then maybe Tuesday evenings are the best time to clean your office.

This reduces crossover and the chances of viral spread between hybrid working teams. If anything, cleans should become more regular to account for this – but as a minimum, businesses should be adhering to the same schedule, adapted for teams crossing over.

And if you’re looking for a local cleaning company to help you find the best schedule, get in touch.

Office cleaning that works around you

Our professional cleaning technicians are background checked and have years of experience in facilities like yours. We thoroughly clean all surfaces from carpeting to windows.