To think that “professional” standards shouldn’t apply during periods of extreme weather?

The only way to possibly solve it is to invite the management to spend a day in your office and then have them decide about what to wear. Or even better, swap offices for the duration of the heatwave. I wonder what the answer will be.

I can't stand this level of hypocritical expectations. Like my boss, who worked from home yesterday while declaring everyone else has to come to the (non air-conditioned) office on a "do not travel unless absolutely necessary" day. We all have plenty we can do working from home. Fuck this.

Totally agree. In this heat I’d go to work naked if I could! 😁 Unfortunately my job requires me to wear a uniform though.

Wear shorts and a t-shirt. Take with you a couple of spare sets of clothes including a deemed-appropriate-for-work set + another if needed that's appropriate for travelling / being outside. You then have plausible deniability - you've just arrived / come back from a break and can get changed. Or take a work appropriate item that you can create a stain on - so you can say you've changed because it's dirty and a dirty item isn't professional. (Not sure what's a good stain - something that will wash out easily in a washing machine but not in a few minutes at a sink)

Managing in heat IME requires multiple changes of clothes through the day - removing stuff as it gets damp with dry stuff.

Wear a linen kaftan, job done. These dress code threads are tiresome.

That’s good. Quite apart from others telling you that a floaty dress is cooler and that you should therefore suck it up because rules are rules, you’re an adult who should be trusted to make a determination for herself over what to wear!

What has management’s reaction been to your scandalous choice of clothing?

I agree that normal dress code could be relaxed in this weather. I disagree that shorts are cooler. A loose fitting dress without a fitted waist is cooler than shorts and a fitted t-shirt. As a short person, I buy knee length dresses and they are calf length on me.

As I suspected…. It does seem there are a subset of women with a tendency to be super-uptight, puritanical and rules-obsessed in a way that you rarely see in men.

You see it on MN all the time - I’m just grateful I don’t know any women like that in real life! None of this to saying men don’t have their faults - obviously they do!

What’s it all about? Are they jealous of younger hotter women showing off their bodies by displaying well-toned arms or legs?

I’m in the office today… at least half the women have dresses or tops that are short-armed and show a bit of shoulder. Many have knee length skirts too -(knee length skirts were ok way back in the 40s!) They look perfectly normal and professional…

Nothing inherent, presumably? I did feel rather unsettled one year though where a chap had his tackle poking out the sides. That’s why I would prefer a ‘longer shorts only’ rule, personally, which you say you’re wearing anyway, OP, so you are already being sensible about abiding by a sensible dress code.

And I’m glad you’ve complained, OP; it’s been obvious your working conditions are unacceptable from your first post. Your office needs an air con unit asap, or home working should be approved immediately.

The world has actually gone mad. Surely adults should be trusted to use their own judgement on what would be most comfortable for them to wear?

As long as people aren't going into the office with their tits out or their arse half on show then what is there for others to be offended by??

I've had to work in sweltering heat wearing engineering overalls and full PPE and it was fucking miserable, but absolutely unavoidable. My experience doesn't mean that anyone who's uncomfortable should have to just suck it up when there's very reasonable ways to mitigate the discomfort a bit.

The world has actually gone mad. Surely adults should be trusted to use their own judgement on what would be most comfortable for them to wear?

As long as people aren't going into the office with their tits out or their arse half on show then what is there for others to be offended by??

I've had to work in sweltering heat wearing engineering overalls and full PPE and it was fucking miserable, but absolutely unavoidable. My experience doesn't mean that anyone who's uncomfortable should have to just suck it up when there's very reasonable ways to mitigate the discomfort a bit.

Not... a thigh!!!! faints

Notwithstanding that men are perfectly capable of being arseholes, I’d put money on this “professional attire” direction coming from a woman boss who weirdly has a thing about other women displaying all but the minimum of flesh (the comments on her about the inappropriateness of seeing any shoulders or any thigh showing this is a thing!)

I really don’t think it would even cross men’s mind, and even if it did, I can’t imagine they’d be wanting to prevent women from showing a bit of knee in the office!

YANBU to relax the dress code.

However, I think you're focusing on the wrong thing. Whatever you wear, 40c is far too hot for an office.

This-what a bizarre rule!

I think it’s ok to say stuff should be knee length/below the knee as I don’t particularly want to see other people’s thighs whilst I’m working. Same with stomachs or cleavages.

If men can wear shorts though (which is very modern for an office dress code), why do women have to wear something 18th century?

Good luck with your complaint!

I am 5ft 3 and I am pretty sure my ankles are NOT at my calves

Good on you.

Do your management generally treat you like crap?

I mean, of all the things they could have done with this hot spell , rather than think how to promote about your wellbeing, or even to ensure you remained productive, they focussed on insisting you adhered to a ln unnecessary strict rule. Wankers.

Good thinking. It’s one of those things you shouldn’t have to and only comes about because of some extreme like what you’re facing.

I got the idea in my case because they’d done it at a previous workplace where there’d been an extension to the building but it was too damn cold! That employer was taking it seriously and we had all these thermometers left around the place, to see how bad the issue was. They showed rooms were barely getting up to 17 Celsius by mid-afternoon with the heating on all day.
There was a row with the architect and another team over the design of the extension and the radiators installed, and the thermometers really helped convincing them there was a problem.

Exactly and actually take steps required by health and safety legislation to fulfil their obligations, one of which is that the temperature in all indoor working places shall be reasonable. They are also required to provide a sufficient number of thermometers to ensure people can determine the temperature, which I’d forgotten about (reg 7(3) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992). Should have mentioned that to my idiot manager a few years ago instead of bringing my own one in.

Glad to read the OP and colleagues are raising a complaint.

Yes they absolutely do. That's what I also said in my first response. They should be getting AC in.

My own experience a few years ago occurred at an organisation that believed it was leading the way. I’d started in February. By late March I was noticing come early afternoon, it was unusually warm and I was yawning a lot (telltale sign I’m overheating), and comments were being made about this. “Are you ready for a nap” etc.

I was asked to have a chat in April about my yawning. Apparently it was off-putting (to my manager) and she’d been embarrassed because I’d been yawning in a meeting; it was unprofessional and people would think I was bored or being rude. I was asked if I was getting enough sleep, I wasn’t going out after work drinking, was I? Incouldn’t believe it. I fought my corner but ended up agreeing to an OH referral.

By this point a guy, who was also new, was also complaining about the temperature in the office. We found out from a longer serving colleague this particular office was the only one in the building where the air con didn’t work. They were also planning on changing the films on the windows, to keep out heat, because the existing ones had proven useless.

I brought all this up with the manager. Yeah, I get it, our office is hot but there’s not much I can do.” I suggested a desk fan. I was expecting a proper desk fan, as I’d had in other offices. No. I was given the tiniest USB powered fan you can imagine. Just as helpful as one of those old-school hand held ones like this .

I started taking in a digital thermometer that also measured relative humidity and leaving it on my desk. I’d check it throughout the day and was finding the temperature was getting up to 26C by 9:30/10am. Humidity levels were 78%+
The worst day in early May resulted in me going home, developing a really intense headache, feeling sick and having to go back out and buy rehydration powders. The following day it turned out another colleague had been experiencing the same symptoms and we had to drive yet another home, who reported a heat induced migraine.

So, yeah, I was the problem 😂

Occ Health doctor was very good. Explained what was going on and he said that’s heat stress or heat exhaustion. Told him about the usb fan and he laughed. The report came back - get a functional desk fan was one of the recommendations i.e. a polite way of saying one that actually does.

There were links to heat stress info and recommendations to let me have regular comfort breaks, including during meetings, when I experienced symptoms. Furthermore, that I should go and work in a cooler, air conditioned part of the building or from home where I could better control the temperature.

My manager got quite pissy about the report.. “I don’t think we can always accommodate the recommendarions.” I said to her politely we should at least explore them, to see if they made a difference. So I started working in meeting rooms or orher offices that weren’t in use and where the air con worked. I knew my manager resented this. Despite the fact I’d let her know where I was, she kept on saying, “I don’t know where you are,” and one day I was phoned, “are you still in the building?”

By this point I’d started looking for a new job. When I got one, our Head of Department asked to speak to me and I told her what had been going on. She seemed really annoyed when I mentioned it felt like I’d been accused of burning the candle at both ends and going out drinking on school nights.

I was emailed the following day by the HoD with my manager CC’d in. References were made to the OH advice and that I was to work wherever the recommendations could be best achieved!