Wednesday, January 07, 2009

The Anti-Bacterial Question - Wednesday 1/7/2009


Last night, Kitty and I talked about the over use of anti-bacterial products these days. I think she was relieved to hear that although I do have a bit of a mania about clearing and wiping off my kitchen counters before bed, I don't routinely swab them with microbe-annihilating potions.

But then I had to admit to her that I use them at work. The hand- and dish-soaps are provided by the office, and I recently added the Purell to my desk.

This is due to the nasty habit we have in this office of passing around colds. Yesterday, 4 of my 7 coworkers were either working sick or out sick.

To avoid the thrill of this particular merry-go-round, I started using my own glass, bowl, plate, cups and silverware rather than share the communal stock a couple of years ago.

When I started here, I was kind of excited at the thought of an all-female office. I just assumed that would mean that everyone would do her own dishes, wipe her own exploded soup off the insides of the microwave, scrape her own burnt cheese off the bottom of the toaster oven.

Not so, my friends.

But at least I was made aware of and made to release that sexist little nugget.

I started using my own private utensils because I was fed up with always carting other people's clean dishes back to the little kitchen area. And if they want to leave a bowl soaking until smelly creatures colonize it's surface, it's not my problem.

The water we have to wash dishes in doesn't get very hot, so I want to just limit myself to my own personal germies, thank you very much. I even have my own (nice clean) dishtowel so I don't have to leave my dishes in the drain rack (which is in the same room as the toilet...don't get me started on what The Today Show would say about that!)

Every year at some point a cold (or two) gets shuffled around the office, bolstering my separatist inclinations. When one person is out sick, it's almost a given that I or another coworker will have to go to her desk and work on her computer or get her USB drive to work from. I unabashedly wipe everything at her desk down with those Kirkland anti-bacterial wipes.

I'll admit that it's doing a number on my hands, drying them out a bit more than usual even for this time of year.



Other than that, I think I'm handling the situation quite rationally.

5 comments:

fingerstothebone said...

Stay healthy, and rob a bank while you're at it!

Anonymous said...

Don't wear that to the airport. They won't let you on the plane.
Hydra

Sundry said...

Fingers - If only there were any money in the banks...

Hydra - Yes, the binder clip holding it together in back would set off alarms!

Kathy Rogers said...

Hilarious.

I confess to spraying down most of the house with Lysol when the second cold in three weeks invaded.

I've been considering carrying a little Purell thing with me when faced with an icky public bathroom...

Liz Dwyer said...

LOL, I love the photo!

I don't use any antibacterial hand sanitizer but I'm a Lysol fiend at home. And what is up with people not washing their dishes. My solution at work was to suggest a policy that any unwashed dishes got chucked in the trash at the end of the day. It worked miracles. :)