A customer asked me why I always wear nitrile gloves when I work on his laptop

He said, 'Is it for your safety or my computer's?' I told him it was mostly to stop my skin oils from getting on the parts, but he pointed out that the real risk is me touching my face or a drink and then the keyboard, transferring germs. It hit different because I'd never thought about the cross-contamination angle, just the static and grime. Has anyone else changed a small habit after a simple question like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

jesse_williams629d ago

Forget the gloves and just ground yourself properly. Static is the real killer for parts, not some skin oil or random germs. The customer overthought a simple best practice.

the_hayden9d ago

Okay but nitrile gloves don't actually stop static on their own, that's a common mix-up. They're not anti-static unless they're specifically made that way, which most cheap ones aren't. The real move is using a grounded wrist strap over the glove, or just the strap on bare skin. The glove mostly keeps your finger grease off the pins, which is still a good thing to avoid.

norab219d ago

Actually, nitrile gloves are great for stopping static too, which is a big deal for computer parts. The customer had a point about germs, but the oils and static electricity from skin can really mess with small electronics. I still wear them mostly to keep the parts clean and safe from any little zap.