The joke among Texans is that our seasons go like this – kinda winter, fool’s spring, second kinda winter, mild spring, third kinda winter, the pollening, actual spring, summer, hell’s back porch, fake fall, second summer, actual fall. In case you are wondering, you are now entering “fake fall.” I would even wager that “fake fall” comes and goes in the way our winters seem to ebb and flow. One morning you’re pulling out your favorite sweatshirt and by noon you’re peeling off layers faster than a kid unwraps Christmas gifts.
What this joke fails to fold in is the way that cold and flu season inevitably follows each of these weather-related shifts. It seems every time there’s a change in the temperature, a new wave of “the crummies” descend on our state.
You can be a passive recipient or an active combatant against this ebb and flow of cold and flu season. Facilities managers face the critical task of ensuring that their campus is ready to tamp down the wave of germs that follow each passing cool front. When we think of illness, we often think of the “worst stuff” – flu, Covid-19, stomach flu, etc. But even the common cold, strep, or the dreaded hand foot and mouth disease can bring the most well-oiled machine of a team to a screeching halt.
Nothing puts people on edge like a sniffling and sneezing coworker in the conference room.
Here are proactive steps you can take to ensure a healthier workplace environment this fall:
- Assess risk. Cold and flu season typically peeks from this time of year through early spring. Other disruptors like stomach bugs (norovirus) and Covid-19 also ramp up this time of year but have a less defined trend. You may determine that at certain times of the year, you need to add a day porter service to your regular janitorial cleaning care plan in order to ensure high-touch surfaces such as doorknobs, elevator buttons, and handrails are disinfected throughout the day.
- Reevaluate your regular janitorial cleaning. Has staff size or visitor frequency ramped up since you created your cleaning care plan? Give the team at Sonlight Cleaning Services a call to reevaluate your cleaning care plan to ensure it is still the right frequency for your needs. It may be that it is time to add a service such as e-sanitizing to your routine.
- Promote healthy work habits among team members. Ensure that everyone employed at the facility knows the company’s sick leave policy. Talk with supervisors to stress the importance of reducing the spread of germs by encouraging people who feel under the weather to stay home.
In our next blog, we will cover three more ways you can prepare for cold and flu season.
By Laura Pulliam
