Sick days are expensive. When one person catches a cold and it spreads through your office, you lose more than just one employee’s productivity. You lose momentum, miss deadlines, and watch morale drop as teams scramble to cover for absent colleagues. One Manhattan company was stuck in this cycle until they changed their approach to office cleaning. Here is their story.

Quick Facts

Client Type: Financial services, Midtown Manhattan

Office Size: 30,000 sq ft with 200 employees

Service Schedule: Five nights per week, enhanced sanitization

Core Issue: Illnesses spreading rapidly through open floor plan

Outcome: 30% fewer sick days, approximately $180,000 in recovered productivity

What This Company Was Dealing With

This 200-person Manhattan office had an open floor plan designed for collaboration. Great for teamwork. Terrible for containing illness. Every cold and flu season, the same story repeated: one sick employee would come in, and within two weeks, a significant portion of the office was out.

The HR Director described it as watching dominoes fall. Someone in one department would start sniffling on Monday. By Friday, multiple people were calling in sick. The following week, it would spread to adjacent teams. During peak flu season, they operated at noticeably reduced capacity for weeks at a time.

They had tried the obvious solutions. Hand sanitizer stations appeared at every entrance and common area. Emails went out reminding people to stay home when sick. They even invested in commercial air purifiers. Nothing changed the pattern.

Meanwhile, their cleaning company was doing exactly what they were paid to do: keeping the office looking clean. Vacuuming, trash removal, surface wiping. What they were not doing was systematically sanitizing the surfaces where germs actually spread. The office looked fine. It was not actually healthy.

How We Approached the Problem Differently

When this company contacted us, they were not just looking for a new cleaning vendor. They were looking for a solution to a specific business problem: too much lost productivity from preventable illness. That required a different kind of cleaning program.

We started by mapping their space from a disease transmission perspective. Where were the high-touch surfaces? Which areas saw the most shared contact? What was the flow of people through the office, and where did transmission risks concentrate?

The answers were not surprising but they were illuminating. Two hundred people touched the same entry door handles every morning. Everyone pushed the same elevator buttons. The conference rooms, kitchen, and restrooms were constant transmission points. Every shared printer, every coffee machine, every refrigerator door was a potential vector.

We built a cleaning regimen around these realities:

Every High-Touch Surface, Every Night

Our team sanitizes every identified transmission point nightly using EPA-registered disinfectants effective against common cold and flu viruses. We do not just wipe surfaces. We apply products correctly and observe proper dwell times so they actually kill pathogens. Door handles, elevator buttons, light switches, phones, touchscreens, appliance controls, restroom fixtures. All of it, every night.

Special Attention to Problem Areas

Restrooms and kitchens concentrate germ exposure. We treat these spaces as priority zones with enhanced sanitization protocols and guaranteed supply restocking. An empty soap dispenser can undermine an entire hygiene program.

Flexible Response to Active Outbreaks

When the company identifies illness spreading through their office, they can request enhanced cleaning immediately. We increase sanitization frequency and focus attention on affected areas. Catching outbreaks early and responding quickly helps contain them before they spiral.

What Changed After One Year

The company tracked their sick day data carefully after implementing our specialized regimen. After twelve months, they had clear answers.

Sick days fell 30% compared to the prior year. The most dramatic improvement came during traditional cold and flu season, when they historically lost the most productivity. The domino effect of one illness leading to many became noticeably less common.

Based on their salary cost calculations, they estimated approximately $180,000 in recovered productivity over the year. That number does not capture everything: the avoided stress, the projects that stayed on schedule, the client commitments that were met. But it gave them a clear picture of return on investment.

Internal surveys showed employees felt better about their workplace environment. They noticed the difference, even if they could not articulate exactly what changed. The office felt healthier because it was healthier.

The Difference Between Looking Clean and Being Clean

This company’s previous cleaning service was not doing a bad job by standard measures. The office looked clean. But appearance and hygiene are separate things.

Standard janitorial work prioritizes visible results: no trash in bins, no dust on surfaces, no stains on carpets. That work matters for professional appearance. It does not address the invisible pathogens that make people sick.

Effective disease prevention requires systematic attention to transmission points, proper sanitization products used correctly, and trained staff who understand the difference between wiping a surface and actually disinfecting it. That requires investment in people, training, and accountability that budget cleaning services simply cannot provide.

Could Your Office Benefit from Healthier Cleaning?

If predictable illness outbreaks drain your company’s productivity every year, the problem might be environmental rather than behavioral. Professional sanitization protocols can interrupt disease transmission and create measurably healthier workplaces.

Get a Free Quote to discuss how our specialized cleaning approach can help your Manhattan or Miami office reduce sick days and protect your team’s health.