Aircon wars.... How can I resolve this?

[cjt110]

I work in an open office. Generally just me and another colleague with salespeople who drop in/out. I always ask whether it's ok to open a window, or turn the heating on etc. The colleague would ask if it was ok to close the window etc if they got cool.

I am really quite hot and clammy. Partly due to the weather and also due to a health condition I am battling.

I will put air con on to make the room cool. Colleague will wait til I have gone to the loo to turn it off, or just get up and turn it off lately.

I explained yesterday I was really quite hot and I could turn it down if they liked, instead of off. They said, no they wanted it off.

I am sat here, clammy and hot. Have just been to the loo and come back and he's turned it off. I have a floaty cotton top on and leggings. I cannot be any more undressed if I try.

Whilst I know it's not their fault, I think it rude to just switch it off without asking when previously, he has asked. It's now become a bit of a war. Everytime I notice it's not on, it goes back on. Other colleagues who know nothing of this have commented on being up here "Cor, it's a bit warm up here" So it's not just me.

So, WhoIBU and how can I resolve this?

Op you sound like a nightmare, and that's from your POV posts. I'm firmly on your colleagues side.

Buy a USB fan from the pound shop and stop making their life a misery.

OP, I can understand how you feel if you have a medical condition which causes you to be sensitive to heat. However, how do you know your colleague doesn't have a health condition which also affects his reaction to temperature? For example, hypothyroidism or Reynaud's? Last week, on a beach in 30 degree heat, I had a Reynaud's episode where I lost all feeling in my fingers - they were bright white - simply because I swam in the cooler water for 5 minutes. Reynaldo's episodes can make you feel incredibly ill and unable to function. Sitting in air-con spaces is hellish for people like me (despite also being menopausal and prone to super hot flashes!).

You need to work together to try and find a workable solution. Simply stropping because he has had the audacity to turn off the air-con is not exactly a mature way to handle the situation.

If you are in the UK, it's really not that hot, and unfair on other people

Not crazy temperature but omg so muggy it's like wading through treacle,I have the doors and windows open and a fan on full blast, air con would be lovely!

He needs to put a bloody jumper on!

Is your medical condition comsisered a disability for which your employers would have to make reasonable adjustments? obviously you don't have to answer but it might be worth considering.

I had the opposite problem as part of a disability (couldn't get too cold) so my employer moved my desk away from doors/draughts and supplied me with a portable heater. If yours is indeed a disability I feel them supplying a portable fan for your use might be a reasonable adjustment.

I have a very similar issue. I'm a hot person and wear as little as possible. I'm not allowed the window open as the others get cold (they also wear as little as possible), and if I do open it they close it when I leave the room. I have a fan on my desk but it does bugger all. I'm regularly getting chest infections due to the lack of fresh air, too.
My boss offered to get me a dehumidifier!

So difficult. I've worked with people who have totally opposing 'needs' to me and it can be very trying.
I've had issues over not only temperature, but also whether to have a light on or not.
I wouldn't be able to work efficiently if I was cold or if it was too dark to read comfortably but my colleague felt they couldn't if they were hot or had too much light.
Having said that I'm lucky enough not to have had to work in an air conditioned building for which I am eternally grateful.

I can't understand posters who think it's not hot enough in the uk to justify air conditioning! Where I last worked our office temperature was frequently higher than 30 degrees, fans did nothing but blow paperwork around and open windows only let in more heat - we all would have loved aircon.

Another office I worked in was air conditioned and for the people who sat below the unit and in a draught, the aircon company provided foam draught excluders which fitted inside the unit stopping the draught to them but didn't affect the temperature of the office.

Yet another summer has been ruined for me due to air con. I shouldn't have to wear a fucking jumper in August!!

I hate our office aircon.This summer has been cold, but they still put the aircon on "because it's summer" and I sit right under the vent. Its gets turned off when the majority of the office get too cold.
I have a fleece at work and wear that when I get too cold, but the main problem is my hands. Ive got icy cold air blasting down on me all day and my hands sometimes get so cold they are stiff.
Ive got myself a pair of fingerless gloves now as my hands are unbearably cold, which is ridiculous, inside, in summer. Today I wore a summer dress, cardi, sandals, a thick fleece and fingerless gloves!
Our manager is going to try and move us around so the "hot" people can sit under the vent, and us that feel the cold are more away from it.
I cant wait for winter when the bloody thing gets turned off permanently.

I actually spoke to our health and safety advisor and they said it's all compromise. I'm anaemic so get way too cold and then I'm practically asleep at my desk.

Doesnt really help, but if this is the uk it is shit building syndrome, caused by fuckwit designers who seal off all the windows. No new building in the uk should need aircon if built in the last 20 years.

Open windows, have fans for the few hot days and turn stuff off.

But due to crap design, doesnt happen. So cold person puts on more clothes or stops bleating.

I would always rather have the aircon on than off, I overheat very easily and hate being hot, aircon doesn't give me chest infections, dry my contact lenses or any of the other problems others have mentioned. However if a colleague was unhappy I would compromise. You all need to talk together, in a non- confrontational manner and see if you can reach common ground.

Oyster do you work in the same office as me?! 11 is a joke its awful.

Aircon hurts my shoulders/back as im sat right in its path. I have dreams of supergluing it to 'off' or smashing it with a hammer 😅

I bought myself a desk fan

Also it's usually women that complain of being cold all the time yet they aren't dressed appropriately (sleeveless tops, no tights etc) and the men have to wear full suits so of course they will be warmer.

Do you have a facilities team you could talk to about it? I used to work on a helpdesk and man did I hate summer and all the calls we'd get re aircon wars! I think sometimes the techs were able to change to direction of the air flow so it wasn't blowing on the "cold" person anymore... maybe Ryooki could confirm of that's possible?!
And offices in summer with no aircon can be hellish... You have my sympathies!

I don't understand people saying it's not hot enough in the uk either?
Where have you been!
It's been boiling this year!
I dread the summers at work because i feel physically sick due to the heat ( and my illness is then made worse).
Thankfully the aircon was always on at my last job.
If i felt a bit chilly I just had my cardi.
I always see on threads like this that it's woman that are apparently too cold, yet that's never been my experience where i've worked, or with my friends.
I have my fan at home on more than my dh

I hate aircon. Unless it's truly blistering, it's not needed. And even then I prefer a fan. However obviously everyone's different, and this becomes very clear if it's just two of you. Could you compromise by having it on for an hour, off for an hour, or something? Switching it off won't cause the temperature to rocket immediately, just as switching it on won't make it freezing (for me, probably "comfortable" for you) straight away. So a sort of happy medium....?

One of the things I hate the most about aircon is being directly in its evil path. Maybe your colleague is being blasted by artificially freezing cold air? You could swap for a day and see if you're both more comfortable?

The thing to remember here, as pp have said, is that neither of you is "right", you will both have your sympathisers and detractors. But if you don't talk about it, then you'll just both spend the rest of your working lives together thinking the other one is a prize dick. Which is a bit of a shame.

Currently in air con hell. The direct cold icy blast is miserable. My eyes throat head and skin are suffering and a jumper wont solve that. The PP nailed it - its the direct bladt. Someone firing cold air at you for 8 hours every day. Torture.

It's much easier to warm up than cool down. He is being unreasonable.

My employers got sick of aircon wars and locked it down so only a couple of people have access to change the temperature. If enough people say they're hot, the aircon goes on at 21. It stopped most of the whining.

I would talk to your bosses. Explain about the medical condition, explain that the only option you can think of is a fan but there aren't enough plugs etc, and ask them for a solution.

IWantAMooseCalledDominic is right in that engineers may be able to modify the airflow stream so that it doesn't blow on one particular person, but only if it's a ceiling cassette. These are the big square ones that sit flush with the ceiling tiles and generally have four oscillating outlets. If it's a fan coil unit hidden within the ceiling void (so all you see are supply grilles in the ceiling) then that will be trickier as the grilles and all their connecting ductwork will need moving and reconfiguring (if that's even possible - some ceiling voids are crammed with services and messier than a household attic!). You can probably appreciate that's not a quick and easy job for the most part.

The down side to the above is that this will normally cost your company money. Most companies have a facilities manager who keeps the building ticking over by having multiple contractors in place to come service and repair every aspect of the building, e.g. plumbing, heating, air-con, ventilation etc. Whenever the contractor is called out they naturally charge a fee for their works, whether it's to investigate or fix a problem. Also, if your office can't have the work done during 9-5 hours because it's not convenient as people are working then the contractor charge can a higher premium for them to come back and work 'out of hours'. For these reasons alone your company may not be wiling to spend money getting modifications made to the system, especially to please one person/ a small department.

Why do people always say it's easier to warm up? Trying to warm up is awful. Cooling down is easy and quick.

I find it far easier to warm up, I keep a fleece and a thin scarf at work in winter (our building is poorly insulated and I sit by a big window, even with the heating on it's chilly) - they totally do the trick. If I get too warm in summer (which I do, my window is south facing) it's aircon on or nothing else helps. I spend a far greater proportion of my life too warm compared to too cold.

It's very easy to walk up when you have an active job like an office worker

Gloves would warm you up. But then you couldn't type.

I'm wondering if we work in the same office!! YANBU, but a desk swap might be a good solution. I'm a contact lens wearer, so having a fan blasting in my face really dries my eyes out. I often wear light floaty summer dresses to negate the need for air con, if possible. When I was pregnant at work, I was allowed full control of the air con! It was a great summer for me!