to make a huge fuss about 36 celcius in office?

[50BalesOfHay]

Just that really. It's horrid, I could hardly breathe. No window, fam just stirs the soupy air. I'm late menopausal so struggle with heat anyway, but I just can't cope with it. Wibu to insist that work hire an air con unit, or I won't work there?

PostBellum (and others advocating portable AirCon) the OP states there is no window. AirCon without an external outlet is useless - it becomes a heater.
The temperature in my office is moderate in comparison, but it regularly goes to 30 on any sunny day (that's most of the year). Being pregnant I get regular reviews with one of our H&S ladies, we are monitoring the temperature daily to make a case to proper AirCon. The odd few days in a year are going to be ignored by our management bur we're trying to show it's a permanent issue. Would that apply to you?

Ours is up to 29 at the moment, made worse by wearing uniform, with boots and a tie.

The irony is I had a meeting on monday about our heating not working - I reported it in january and made regular calls about it. We spent all winter freezing.

Our uniform is black heavy police trousers that have a rubber bit inside the waist band which stinks after a day in the heat.

Im working til 10 pm so still have hours to go before I can get in a cool shower.

Purple, do you not also get issued with lightweight trousers?

They are the light weight ones! Still very heavy and horrible.

lock your bosses office and make him or her work in your office, putting the heating on for good measure as well

Going to fess up straight away that I am a Mum but also work for www.andrews-sykes.com - they provide air conditioning units for companies to hire. Not all bosses realise that you can rent units, so might be worth mentioning? Yesterday a group of MPs called for a maximum working temp of 30 in the UK but in reality, productive working temps are much lower than this.

At my old job I put an incident form
In every time the temp rose above 25 deg cent but it was a nursing home and it affected the storage of mess and the people that lived there....they had to get air con!!!

I feel your pain op, I've been so hot at work recently that I've been feeking really unwell. We aren't allowed to bring out own fans unless they've been PAT tested. I could get one of the on site engineers to do it for me but the waiting list is about 3 or 4 weeks. There is air con but it's a big open plan room and it only works at one end, in order for those of us at the other end to get any benefit everyone directly underneath it has to sit in a howling Arctic gale.

Normal air-conditioning does just that but does not reduce the temperature. It is the air movement that cools the skin down. Fans do not produce colder air, they make us feel cooler by moving the same air at rapid speed.

Put a cup of ice under the fan and it will cool the air it blows

It was 30 at my desk at home yesterday. I got nothing done as I was so hot, and I had my feet in water, a wet muslin on the back of my neck and was wearing nothing but a belly bra and a silk kimono!

If I were you OP I'd come over all dizzy and ill somewhere very near your H&S person.

themaltesecat the high temperatures outside are not her boss's fault. The high temperatures inside are, especially since he has aircon and his staff don't!

(Point being, if I was suffering and unproductive at 30c in my skivvies then 36c wearing office-appropriate attire must be torture.)

I sympathise.

I work in a purpose built GP's surgery, apparently air con was fitted but not used as it's too expensive.

We open the windows but have to keep the blinds closed for privacy, and have a fan but it blows your dressings off the trolley! Then we have to wear plastic gloves and aprons for every patient, which on top of your thick cotton nurses dress or tunic/trousers is so hot.

The waiting room is glass fronted which looks lovely but as it's south facing the patients are melting by the time they get into my room, which hit 29 degrees by 1000 yesterday morning.

It's awful doing a physical job in that heat, and I love the sun and grew up in the Middle East! In hotter climes they are geared up for it though with air con in cars, public spaces, homes and offices.

Talk nicely to the maintenance man and see if they can arrange for the a/c in the chairman's office to be disconnected for a day or two.

Go and talk to the chairman after he has been stewing for an hour or two and show him temporary air conditioners or reasonably cheap portable ones. Get him to sign off on a job lot of them for you and your colleagues and one for himself too...