A total of 1,000 Australian workers from around the country were polled by recruitment agency Talent2 Works. Some 29 percent of workers said the work environment was harming their health; 27 percent said their work environment was dirty to the point of being unhealthy; and 17 percent said employees in their workplace regularly fall ill because of the unhealthy work environment.
"Common complaints from employees about their workplaces included poor ventilation, messy bathrooms, poor lighting and uncomfortable furniture," said Mark Brayan, chief executive of Talent2 Works.
He claimed that working in an office space with stale air, dim lighting, dirty keyboards and hazardous equipment can cause health problems such as headaches, nausea, dizziness, short-term memory loss and even damage to the nervous and respiratory systems in extreme cases.
"These problems not only affect employees, but companies may also feel the pain as an unclean and unsafe environment can drastically cut productivity, damage staff morale and increase absenteeism," said Brayan.
Surprisingly, the women surveyed claimed they were more likely than the men to work in a dirty environment and to face safety hazards at work.