Unsolved (Work) Mysteries, Grease Edition
March 8, 2019 6:49 PM Subscribe
My work mouse and keyboard start to feel very greasy, very fast. My home mouse and keyboard do not. What gives? More details inside.
Relevant Facts:
- I feel the need to regularly clean my mouse and keyboard at work, sometimes multiple times a day (but that is a rare situation) because they start to feel greasy.
- I do not share my keyboard or mouse at work. People seldom, if ever, sit at my desk to use my computer peripherals.
- I do not feel the need to clean my home mouse and keyboard nearly as much, it's more typical for weeks or months to go by before I feel compelled to clean my home peripherals.
- While I do spend a lot more time at the computer at work, I'm still a regular user of my home computer each day or week.
- I'm a fairly frequent hand washer by habit, at home and at work.
- People do get sick a lot at my office, although I've managed to stay in reasonably good health, relative to everyone else.
Soo... is my office environment just that filthy + I spend that much more time at my computer?
Maybe I'm more likely to sit at my computer shortly after having washed my hands, and my hands are still greasy from my hand lotion?
I'm just curious why my office peripherals seem to get greasy so fast, compared to what I'm experiencing at home. Any reasonable theories, and possible solutions, are welcome.
Office detectives, what say you?
Relevant Facts:
- I feel the need to regularly clean my mouse and keyboard at work, sometimes multiple times a day (but that is a rare situation) because they start to feel greasy.
- I do not share my keyboard or mouse at work. People seldom, if ever, sit at my desk to use my computer peripherals.
- I do not feel the need to clean my home mouse and keyboard nearly as much, it's more typical for weeks or months to go by before I feel compelled to clean my home peripherals.
- While I do spend a lot more time at the computer at work, I'm still a regular user of my home computer each day or week.
- I'm a fairly frequent hand washer by habit, at home and at work.
- People do get sick a lot at my office, although I've managed to stay in reasonably good health, relative to everyone else.
Soo... is my office environment just that filthy + I spend that much more time at my computer?
Maybe I'm more likely to sit at my computer shortly after having washed my hands, and my hands are still greasy from my hand lotion?
I'm just curious why my office peripherals seem to get greasy so fast, compared to what I'm experiencing at home. Any reasonable theories, and possible solutions, are welcome.
Office detectives, what say you?
Does your office have any automatic sprayers, air fresheners, etc? I ran a year long war against one of those that sprayed directly on my desk.
Another possibility is some type of cleaning the staff does.
But lotion sounds most reasonable
posted by Jacen at 7:03 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
Another possibility is some type of cleaning the staff does.
But lotion sounds most reasonable
posted by Jacen at 7:03 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
Plastic loooooooves oils. If there's freshly applied lotion on your hands, your keyboard and mouse will certainly tear some of it off.
You might care to run an experiment where you leave the hand lotion step out of your washing routine for a day and compare the greasiness of mouse and keyboard at the end.
posted by flabdablet at 7:11 PM on March 8, 2019
You might care to run an experiment where you leave the hand lotion step out of your washing routine for a day and compare the greasiness of mouse and keyboard at the end.
posted by flabdablet at 7:11 PM on March 8, 2019
Is it possible your work keyboard has worn down smoother, and therefore feels slicker faster?
posted by yeahlikethat at 8:10 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by yeahlikethat at 8:10 PM on March 8, 2019
Do you eat food with your hands more frequently at work?
posted by ocherdraco at 9:00 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by ocherdraco at 9:00 PM on March 8, 2019
Yeah my first thought was whether you regularly eat your desk.
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:07 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:07 PM on March 8, 2019
Does your office have cleaning staff? Even if they're just gently brushing a duster over your desk surfaces, they could depositing cleaners that are slick.
posted by quince at 11:41 PM on March 8, 2019
posted by quince at 11:41 PM on March 8, 2019
Do you use exactly the same type of mouse and keyboard in both places? Different products may be made of different plastics with different characteristics. In particular ABS is prone to that shiny, greasy thing, in a way that PBT isn’t. If your home keyboard has PBT caps it won’t age at the same rate as a work keyboard with ABS caps. I’ve been buying the same trackball for over a decade now (I own at least four), and I thus know different lots of the same product have different aging characteristics.
But also, basically everything you do at your computer is affected by the immediate environment. Hotter or colder? More stressed? Snacking? Spending longer periods without interruption? Any and all of those factors (and more) will affect the production of sweat and sebum that results in oily, waxy, somewhat acidic buildup on anything you touch a lot. Like a keyboard.
And even if you use your home computer for a couple hours a day and more on weekends, that’s still probably less than a third of the cumulative use of your work computer. The biggest factor is probably time. I’d guess, in descending order, the influences are time, environment, and materials.
posted by fedward at 8:01 AM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
But also, basically everything you do at your computer is affected by the immediate environment. Hotter or colder? More stressed? Snacking? Spending longer periods without interruption? Any and all of those factors (and more) will affect the production of sweat and sebum that results in oily, waxy, somewhat acidic buildup on anything you touch a lot. Like a keyboard.
And even if you use your home computer for a couple hours a day and more on weekends, that’s still probably less than a third of the cumulative use of your work computer. The biggest factor is probably time. I’d guess, in descending order, the influences are time, environment, and materials.
posted by fedward at 8:01 AM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
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posted by Autumnheart at 6:58 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]