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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to want the window closed

98 replies

Arabesque1 · 19/11/2013 15:49

The woman I share an office with has had the window open since 9 o'clock this morning and it's freezing . I asked at lunch time if we could close it and she agreed with a bit of a face Angry.

Came back from a meeting a while ago and she had bloody opened it again. WIBU to slam it closed with a big annoyed sigh?

OP posts:
whereiseveryone · 19/11/2013 21:50

Is she fat with a face like a cat's bum? If so, I've worked with her too.

I hate working in offices...

newforest · 19/11/2013 21:57

Oh my god, we must share a room with the same woman! I had the heating on this morning with the door shut to warm up the room and she storms in at 9, says it's too hot and opens the door. I say I have to put our extra heater on if she's going to open the door as I was freezing (mobile heater so was right next to me, nowhere near her). She then angrily swings open the window, in which position it remains all day. We therefore proceeded to have a battle of wills for seven hours as to how hot/cold we could get the room! Awful. She spent all day saying how hot she was and kept turning the radiator off every time I left the room. If she shut the window, I wouldn't need it on all day!!!

Original poster
Arabesque1 · 20/11/2013 10:35

I came in wearing my winter woolies this morning and just as well because the room is like a refrigerator. The window was wide open and the radiators switched off. I told her we need a compromise and suggested we leave the windows closed and the rads on during the morning to allow the room to heat up and then let some fresh air in after lunch. All she said was 'It's not cold in here. I'm roasting'. So I've actually complained to my boss who agrees the situation is ridiculous. She said she always thinks our room is very cold when she comes into it. She's going to talk to my colleague and explain that employers are actually legally obliged to provide a minimum level temperature for staff to work in and that it's obvious when you walk into our room that the temperature is not being reached.

OP posts:
PurpleRayne · 20/11/2013 10:38

Could she be ill and not realise? Thyroid? Menopausal?

TantrumsAndBalloons · 20/11/2013 10:45

This sounds like our office in the summer. There is much switching on and off of the air conditioning accompanied by much sighing and fanning and shivering.

It's bloody annoying c

DrinkFeckArseGirls · 20/11/2013 10:53

I'd tell her it's not your fault she's menopausal. Cheeky mare Shock

welshnat · 20/11/2013 10:55

I was going to say that if the temperature drops below a certain point (I think 15 degrees) then you it is not a suitable working environment and it is within your rights to leave until the situation is resolved.

Cookethenook · 20/11/2013 11:03

YAB slightly U.

DP works in an office with 5 other people. He's a hot bod and wears very light weight clothes because of it. He even keeps a fan on his table in the summer. He likes to open the window now and again to cool the room down, but there is always one woman who closes it and makes a massive fuss about being cold.... whilst wearing a skirt and sheer blouse. They have a thermostat and even when the room is 21 degrees, she's complaining about being cold and putting the space heater on, it drives anyone else nuts!! DP gets really miserable because of it as he has to spend the day all sweaty and uncomfortable.

If it's the first time she's done it and therefore don't have warm clothes with you then fair enough, but if it's a regular thing, then you are. Perhaps you could get a thermostat to put in the room and make a rule that the window can only be open over a certain room temp? Or ask her to invest in a small desk fan.

You can put more layers on, she can't take all of her clothes off!!

Original poster
Arabesque1 · 20/11/2013 11:12

Eh, I've already said I come in dressed in warm clothes and am seeking a compromise, not complaining and making a fuss every time she opens the window. There is no way the temperature in our room is allowed hit anything like 21 degrees.

OP posts:
angelos02 · 20/11/2013 11:29

If people are noticing the drop in temperature when they walk into your room, there is obviously a big difference so YANBU.

On the flip side, there used to be someone that worked in my office and he was forever moaning that he was cold. Well nay wonder, he would wear short-sleeved shirts, no matter what the weather was like. Idiot.

fluffyraggies · 20/11/2013 11:31

I really sympathise OP! But you need a thermometer. Your boss is ''going to talk to my colleague and explain that employers are actually legally obliged to provide a minimum level temperature for staff to work in'' - which is good. But without actual temps. it's always going to be a hyperthetical 'too hot' 'too cold' debate with her otherwise.

I grew up in a house where it was always bloody chilly on account of windows always being open and the heating only on for about 6 mins a day. She's the same now and the kids hate going over to hers in the winter and all of us huddling in one darn room to keep warm like Victorians Hmm (she's not hard up at all by the way, and she also has to wear 3 jumpers to cope with the temp.) She just seems to see it as somehow self indulgent and extravagant to have the house warm.

Even now, when i get sinus pain if i am breathing in cold air for too long, she'll resist heating the room for my visit. I have to sit there with a bloody scarf round my face in her living room. Ridiculous.

Happy to say i keep my own house a nice temp so that we don't have to 'wrap up' when indoors. She moans about 'hardly being able to breath' when she comes to ours. She's the only person who visits our house who says this.

Mim78 · 20/11/2013 11:33

YANBU. It is clearly freezing. There's such a thing as a matter of opinion but today is not a day for the window open for long periods.

Mim78 · 20/11/2013 11:37

Is it also fair to say that you can't dress up too warmly for work if you are in an office environment? Presumably you need to be in office dress and not snuggly jumpers? If she can take her jacket off that sounds fine.

Btw men's are much warmer than women's as standard. They are made out of better materials. You can get women's suits that are warmer but it's more of a search.

Mim78 · 20/11/2013 11:38

Men's suits. Women's suits. Don't know where that word went!

angelos02 · 20/11/2013 11:40

You shouldn't have to wrap up to keep warm in an office.

lookatmybutt · 20/11/2013 12:34

TantrumsAndBalloons - This sounds like our office in the summer. There is much switching on and off of the air conditioning accompanied by much sighing and fanning and shivering.

Yeah, mine is like this. I think it should be law that all English people take a course in How Air Conditioning Should Be Used. Nobody seems to know that you should leave all the windows shut and not turn it off just because there's a brief arctic blast while the temperature sorts itself out. I'd look at the thermostat at the height of summer and it would either be set at 17 or 28 degrees!

I took advantage one day of a couple of the major aircon troublemakers being out of the office and set it properly (20-21 degrees) and told everyone to leave it alone for around half an hour. There were no complaints all day from the hot people or the cold people.

I'm a hot person and like my fresh air. Our office gets so hot in summer (big glass windows facing the sun all day, no ventilation) that people have literally passed out from the heat. I have sweat poring from me and I'm not a sweaty person until the temp reaches at least 30 degrees and I can only take off so many clothes before I'm completely starkers. In the meantime the cold people are sitting there in short sleeved shirts and moaning about how cold they are.

Ironically, my chair is right under the aircon so it blows right down my neck at times. I just wear a light summer cotton scarf - problem sorted!

EldritchCleavage · 20/11/2013 12:45

Our main admin office has a thermometer with the legal thresholds for too hot and too cold marked on it. It's prominently displayed on a shelf as you go in. Don't know where they got it, but you need one of those!

And your colleague sounds bad-mannered.

But all these catty asides about menopausal women are not very nice. Sisterhood, people, come on!

Original poster
Arabesque1 · 20/11/2013 12:47

Boss has had a word with her. It's now been agreed that she will have a fan at her desk and will only open windows if we both agree to it and will be prepared to close them after a while if the room begins to get too cold. It's also been agreed that she can only switch off the radiator nearest to her and that it must be switched back on before she goes home in the evening so the room gets a chance to heat up a bit before we come in.
She's not too happy and has been having a muttered conversation with her husband on the phone, but it sounds like a fair arrangement to me. I honestly don't mind opening the windows now and again to let in some air, or even having them open most of the day in warm weather. But all day every day regardless of how cold it is outside was just pushing it too far, in my opinion.

OP posts:
EldritchCleavage · 20/11/2013 12:53

She doesn't seem to recognise that she wants the room unusually cold. She is free to prefer that but not to enforce it, as your boss has told her. Let her mutter while you enjoy the warmth.

PooInTheNight · 20/11/2013 13:16

That sounds like a good compromise to me OP. I'm all for windows open but I agree it's not fair on others who are sat there freezing. If she sits next to the window then surely she'd be able to have it open slightly rather than wide open, then she'd still be getting a cool breeze but not making everyone else uncomfortable.

ChristmasCareeristBitchNigel · 20/11/2013 13:28

Put a jumper on FFS.

It's awful being stuck in a hot, stuffy office if you are the one that is always too hot. It's not as if she can strip down to her bra so that she can feel comfortable is it ?

Original poster
Arabesque1 · 20/11/2013 13:32

Christmas, as I've already said (twice) I wear warm clothes into work. But there is only so many layers I can wear. It's absolutely freezing weather here so opening the window for prolonged periods is just not practical.

OP posts:
Mim78 · 20/11/2013 13:36

I think the fact that your boss has spoken to her is the answer - YANBU and she is.

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