How To Stop Sick Days Spreading Around Your Office This Winter

If your office feels quieter than usual right now, you're not imagining it. Cold and flu season is well underway, and it spreads fast in shared workspaces.

UK sickness absence has stayed well above pre-pandemic levels, with nearly 150 million working days lost to illness last year. Winter is when this hits hardest, as colds and flu move quickly through desks, meeting rooms and communal kitchens.

Below, we'll cover how germs spread in an office, the areas that pose the biggest risk, and what you can do to keep your team healthier this winter.

Need help right now? Call us on 0208 066 0360 — we offer deep cleaning and disinfection services for offices and workplaces.

Why offices are a hotspot for winter illness

Shared spaces make it easy for germs to travel. A single sick employee can pass illness to colleagues through:

• Shared surfaces like desks, keyboards and door handles
• Communal kitchens, kettles and coffee machines
• Meeting rooms and hot-desking areas
• Poor ventilation in enclosed offices
• Employees coming into work while unwell (often to avoid letting the team down)

Cold and flu viruses can survive on hard surfaces for up to 24 hours, so a single infected surface can spread illness long after the person who touched it has gone home.

Why this matters for your business

Winter sickness isn't just uncomfortable for staff, it's expensive for the business. Minor illnesses like colds and flu remain one of the leading causes of short-term sickness absence in the UK, and the knock-on effects add up:

• Lost productivity from absent staff
• Extra pressure on colleagues covering workloads
• Presenteeism, where unwell staff come in anyway and work at reduced capacity, often spreading illness further
• Delayed projects and missed deadlines during your busiest season

For many businesses, reducing the spread of illness is one of the most cost-effective things you can do heading into winter.

The areas of your office most likely to spread germs

Some spots collect far more germs than others. Pay particular attention to:

• Desks and keyboards — used constantly and rarely disinfected thoroughly
• Door handles and light switches — touched by almost everyone, multiple times a day
• Kitchen and breakout areas — kettles, fridge handles, microwave buttons and shared cutlery
• Meeting room tables and equipment — used by different groups throughout the day
• Lift buttons and stair rails — high-touch points in multi-floor buildings

Tip: standard daily cleaning often focuses on visible tidiness rather than germ hotspots. A proper disinfection routine specifically targets the surfaces people touch most.

What to do if illness is already spreading

If you're seeing multiple staff off sick at once, it's worth acting quickly rather than waiting for it to pass on its own.

1. Encourage genuinely unwell staff to stay home — this reduces presenteeism and limits how far illness spreads
2. Increase cleaning frequency on high-touch surfaces — desks, handles and shared equipment should be wiped down more often during an outbreak
3. Book a deep clean and disinfection — a professional deep clean removes germs that everyday cleaning can miss, resetting the risk across the office
4. Improve ventilation where possible — open windows briefly or check air circulation, as stagnant air helps germs linger
5. Provide hand sanitiser at key points — entrances, kitchens and meeting rooms are worth prioritising

How to reduce sick days for the rest of winter

Getting through one outbreak is one thing, staying ahead of the whole season is another.

Schedule regular deep cleans through winter Rather than relying on standard daily cleaning alone, a scheduled deep clean during peak flu season targets the surfaces most likely to spread illness.

Focus on shared equipment Keyboards, phones, kettles and lift buttons should be part of a specific disinfection routine, not just general office tidying.

Review your cleaning contract for winter If your current cleaning schedule was set up for general tidiness rather than illness prevention, it may be worth adjusting it for the winter months specifically.

Get professional input if absence is high If your business is seeing unusually high sickness levels, a specialist deep clean can reset shared spaces and reduce the risk of illness continuing to circulate. Our commercial cleaning service includes deep cleaning and disinfection tailored to offices and workplaces.

Contact us today

ICE Cleaning provides deep cleaning and disinfection services for offices and commercial premises across the UK, helping reduce the spread of illness during peak season.

To book a clean or request more information, contact our team on 0208 066 0360 or contactus@icecleaning.co.uk