Posted on 02/15/2007 8:46:13 AM PST by Froufrou
Your office desk harbors far more bacteria than your workplace restroom, and if you're a woman, chances are your workspace has more germs than your male co-workers', a new research report shows.
Women have three to four times the number of bacteria in, on and around their desks, phones, computers, keyboards, drawers and personal items as men do, the study by University of Arizona professor Charles Gerba showed.
Gerba, a professor of soil, water and environmental sciences, tested more than 100 offices on the UA campus and in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oregon and Washington, D.C. The $40,000 study was commissioned by the Clorox Co.
"I thought for sure men would be germier," Gerba said. "But women have more interactions with small children and keep food in their desks. The other problem is makeup."
Don't get Gerba wrong: Women's desks typically looked cleaner. But the knickknacks are more abundant, and cosmetics and hand lotions make prime germ-transfer agents, Gerba said. Makeup cases also make for fine germ homes, along with phones, purses and desk drawers.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Hands down, women are dirtier than men. Just look into any public men's room or ladies' room.
Women pass themselves off as prissy and clean, but they're slobs.
Well some, at least. Not all.
By all means, don;t hold back. This is turning out to be a fairly entertaining thread!
Girls have cooties (Like that is big news) PING.
"I thought for sure men would be germier," Gerba said. "But women have more interactions with small children and keep food in their desks. The other problem is makeup."
The study goes against the expectations, and Gerba's first Pavlovian response is to offer a factor that I doubt was researched in her study.
I'm sure that she studied everything about the desk and it's environment, but she probably didn't study non work exposure to children.
I agree. Most of the male bosses I have had including some women bosses desks are like pig stys and heaven forbid you should ever touch. Now you can; if they trust you enough for to take navigating directions to whatever they looking for on or around the desk. Believe me; they probably know where it is.
After years of doing this, I can state with 100% certainty that BOTH men and women are pigs.
There's nothing like having to move massive piles of paper/junk around to get to people's PCs. There's especially nothing like having to crawl around in gunch under people's desks to unplug stuff. I've found everything from 1/2 eaten pizzas to dead animals (not kidding) under there.
I *will* say that the junk that women have on their desks is more knick-knacky and the junk men have on their desks is, well, junk. But that's where the differences end.
I'm glad I'm not in PC support anymore. There's nothing like having to move Fifty-odd pictures of cow knickknacks to get to someone's computer to fix it, then having the same person complain that that a) you took too long and b) the knickknacks weren't put back 'just so'. I don't miss it. :-)
If they did, they'd stay cleaner. But that isn't a primary concern for women. They'll sit on a down seat no matter how many guys dribbled on it. cause one the seat is down, guys won't get their hands dirty by trying to lift it up, although some guys will lift it up with their shoe.
My workplace is a great example.
My cubicle is clean in general. Keep my grooming products in my purse not on my desk.
Do occasionally have a bag of chips or cookies but unless it's a special day like yesterday don't have food big time. (Made my famous turtle cupcakes yesterday).
If you walked around my office the women have food makeup stuff everywhere.
The mens are more cluttered but not dirty.
And the ladies rooms are atrocious but the mens rooms are okay. I know this because my friend owns the company that does the cleaning and told me what their workers told her.
Oh and I do always have a bottle of coke.
The joke at my office is if I ever get to be a famous writer (I am in the process of having a book possibly published) the coworkers can sell to the Enquirer
DLEECOMEBACK07 IS ADDICTED TO COKE HER FORMER COWORKERS SAY!
And of course they have pics of me drinking coke and you'd open up the magazine and find it was coca cola not cocaine.
"Some men are both clean and articulate."
I am neither clean nor articulate. I'm a musician!
After reading most of the posts...this is the worst so far...ewwwwwwww.
So you have sons also, LOL! Yikes!
I have a weird purse.
This is it's contents.
Wallet
Change purse
Makeup bag
Brush and comb
Cellphone
Picture wallet
Work ID
Cubs pocket schedule
Purse sized kleenex. Throw kleenex out after use.
Chapstick
Pack of gum
Bottle of Advil.
I also always wipe down my desk at the end of the workday.
And I always wash my hands after using the restroom.
I also have only 4 pairs of shoes. Tennis shoes, black dress shoes, white dress shoes and a pair of flip flops for the pool casual.
I'm a person who's desk looks like a mess but who can almost always find anything right away. My furniture is antique and shows the wear and tear so I rather prefer to have papers and such in several stacks.
Fawn may have said it best: do men actually DO anything at work?
Well, ok. One of our folks gave her a lift or something and ended up at her house. Sink full (both sides) of dirty dishes and pans with congealed grease on the stove. Trash bags full and stacked by the back door. She turns to the coworker and said thanks for the lift you should come over and use the hot tub some time!!!!!! And we are talking a large, disheveled woman who apparently did not bathe regularly.
And you think your purse is weird? Wow. My wife has approximately 463 pairs of shoes on the floor in our closet, no two of which appear to match. And if she does happen to find two that match, they don't go with what she's wearing.
She read from reports about the amount and types of bacteria found on the faucet handles and inside door handles of public restrooms . . . following that up with slides of cultures taken from the "average" public restroom faucet or door handle.
After teaching the proper way to wash hands (friction, friction, friction), she taught a hand-washing method that involved three paper towels: one to dry your hands (while the faucet is left running); one to turn off the faucet; and one to open the door (if you can prop open the door with a foot and throw the towel into a trash can by the door, fine; if not, take the third paper towel to the nearest trash can outside the restroom). Wash your hands and then turn off the faucet? What a waste of time! That faucet's the one you touched BEFORE you washed your hands, and you've added the germs/bacteria from everyone else who turned the water on. Wash your hands and then open the restroom door without using a paper towel? The 50% of people who don't washed touched that handled after using the restroom. You've just shaken hands with a dozen to a few hundred people who just used the restroom.
She said the worst situation was the McDonald's-type restroom, with only a hot air dryer. Lots of people who would otherwise wash their hands don't do so if no paper towels are available . . . and if you use the hot air dryer, you're more likely to quit drying while your hands are still damp. Damp hands + inner restroom door covered with crud from everyone who didn't wash after using the restroom = worst possible situation.
I use the method. My wife and kids think I'm paranoid -- but then again, they didn't see the slides of the petri dishes cultured from public restrooms.
But at least she is working rather than laying up on welfare.
haha
If she was hot I would like her hair falling out all over my pc..I might even start a scrap book or voodoo doll.
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