Do geeks deserve hazard pay?

March 16, 2004 10:03 AM

"Office workers are exposed to more germs from their phones and keyboards than toilet seats."
Do geeks deserve hazard pay?
posted by DBAPaul (15 comments total)

That's what we get for sending the phone sanitizers on the first ship.
posted by spazzm at 10:25 AM on March 16, 2004

Well, at least since it's MY computer and MY phone, they're MY germs, dammit!
posted by zsazsa at 10:41 AM on March 16, 2004

I think the keyboard germs must have typed out this article, which is in bad need of editing. "Work stations contain . . . as many . . . than . . . . " As many than?
posted by Outlawyr at 11:02 AM on March 16, 2004

I used to have to lay hands on an MS Access database on a co-workers machine. I swear to God the keyboard was practically encrusted - no breaded - after years of typing and eating potato chips. One time I turned the keyboard upside down and shook it over the trashcan. You could have made Chex Mix out of what fell out - or superflu.
posted by ao4047 at 11:06 AM on March 16, 2004

The study found that where office workers who were told to clean their desks with disinfecting wipes, bacterial levels were reduced by 99%.

And that remaining 1% will be the hardiest, meanest ones of all, and they'll be PISSED.
posted by Freaky at 11:07 AM on March 16, 2004

Did anybody else figure out this study was funded by Clorox?

The author states he's funded by Proctor and Gamble and Clorox . The study itself was contracted by Clorox Disinfectant Wipes. It's basically a marketing piece.
posted by daver at 11:29 AM on March 16, 2004

Aaaaaah, I wondered why all the one sentence paragraphs and the poor writing.
posted by Outlawyr at 11:38 AM on March 16, 2004

I used to have to lay hands on an MS Access database on a co-workers machine. I swear to God the keyboard was practically encrusted - no breaded - after years of typing and eating potato chips. One time I turned the keyboard upside down and shook it over the trashcan. You could have made Chex Mix out of what fell out - or superflu.

I got a keyboard secondhand from a heavy pot smoker once, and you can imagine what that was full of.
posted by me & my monkey at 11:54 AM on March 16, 2004

As seen on MetaFilter. (25 May 2003)
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:32 PM on March 16, 2004

Must be spring cleaning time.
posted by DBAPaul at 1:21 PM on March 16, 2004

I'm eating my lunch in the bathroom from now on.
posted by hashashin at 1:45 PM on March 16, 2004

Well this explains the rash of ebola among computer programmers I guess.
posted by callmejay at 2:27 PM on March 16, 2004

I used to work at a medium big crown corporation and they had all the keyboards profesionally cleaned 3 or 4 times a year. Pretty cool and a better moral booster than donuts at a meeting.

We were working with 3270 terminals so the keyboards were worth a couple hundred dollars each.
posted by Mitheral at 2:43 PM on March 16, 2004

Because we all know that it's the number of microbes that counts, not which ones.

*sigh* Another fluff piece.
posted by fvw at 4:01 PM on March 16, 2004

At one of my offices we'd get invaded once a week by the phone-sanitizers. They'd buff and clean and disinfect every phone in the entire building and then move on to the next office. That was their whole gig. It was funny.
posted by dabitch at 1:32 AM on March 17, 2004