This is the manky habit THREE QUARTERS of your office do daily

It's time to buy hand sanitiser and disinfect wipes in bulk.

It turns out many of your work colleagues, friends and family have forgotten what their mama taught them at age three.

Three-quarters of us are failing to wash our hands properly, according to the results from a survey by Initial.

Now before you go waging a war on germs, there are only certain ones that aren't our friends.

There's an important reason why your mam would stand over you and make sure you got every inch of your hands nicely lathered – bacteria. 

The survey showed that a staggering 95 percent of the 264 participates did not spend long enough washing their hands to fully remove those little germy fellas. 

The excuses offered up was poor hand-washing practices (sorry, mammy), being in a hurry, and another fifth said they refused to sud up in a dirty bathroom – which is fair.

And the results show that people aren't loving soap – in fact, only 60 percent occasionally use it when getting those hands clean.

It's the lads that are the biggest offenders, with two third of them never using soap or very rarely, compared with 36 percent of women – Gross.

Something you mightn't have known, according to the experts, cold water is far less effective in removing oils and germs – so get ready to scald the hands off yourself in the name of hygiene.

Getting into the nitty-gritty, the hand washing pros say we NEED to spend over 20 seconds giving them a good scrubbin'.

But only 5.3 percent of those surveyed actually did this…could you only imagine how much bacteria is sitting on your phone after you give your hands a quick rinse and run? – Puke bucket, please. 

And moving to manners, before we inhale our food, only a tiny 23 percent wash up before every meal.

And three-quarters of us sinners, only wash their paws occasionally before a meal – like Christmas.

So the next time you go to shake someone's hand, just keep this information in mind.

And remember it for the next time a co-worker asks to borrow your stuff or hands you something to you – the horror. 

The expert advice to all you disgusting people is to wash your hands AT LEAST six times a day –  in particular before every meal and after using the bathroom. 

20 seconds is the golden rule with warm water and get every inch of the hand – I'm talking to you boys. 

I can hear the collective mammy's sighing around the country as they've attempted to teach us this basic life hack for YEARS.