Just put some bloody clothes on if you're cold....

[woolythoughts]

Just that.

Air conditioning wars.

Office I work in is run by a south american, has two Italians, and a lot of British hot house flowers.

The temperature regularly gets up to 27/28 in here (its an all glass building) but within five minutes of turning the air con on, all we get is "its cold".

Me and one other person are working in light cotton trousers and light vests - nothing else. We literally cannot take any more clothes off and be decent. We have mini personal desk fans which help a little.

The problem doesn't end in winter though. Then they want to crank the heating up to 28 and we'd be quite happy with the window open -but we are willing to compromise at 22. But thats not warm enough apparently.

So we have to suffer feeling ill and tired just because they don't want to wear a cardigan in summer.

God it drives me mad. Put more bloody layers on. Those of us who are extremely uncomfortable when it gets past 20 degrees cannot lose heat when we only have a very thin layer on. Take responsibility for yourself and take a cardigan/extra layer if you are so prone to being cold.

How do you survive in this country if you are uncomfortable past 20 degrees? The UK is everything but a hot country, but even here the temperature gets a bit higher than that.

It's thoroughly ridiculous to expect a colder temperature than the averagely accepted one. It's summer, it's gets warmer, no you can't impose on everybody else to live in winter-temperature all year round. Either you move to a cool place, or you work from home with the air-con on, but don't expect to make choices for other people. No one should have to wear winter clothes in the summer, what a stupid idea. Even the guys in my office have winter and summer suits - and the difference is not that obvious.

Air con to regulate the temperature raised by the machines and the amount of people there is one thing. Air con to lower the temperature drastically is not on.

How will you ever survive a stay in hospital where it really is stuffy?

What sort of aircon brings the temperature down to winter temperature? Must be a hell of a lot more powerful than the one I have if it can get the temp down to single figures!

Ever heard of heating? My office is heated in the winter, and I still need to wear winter clothes because it is usually around 20C (or a tad more at a guess).
It's ridiculous to expect people to same winter clothes in the summer, and what a waste of energy.

What's your air con set up at in your own house in the summer? You must have one if you can't bear the "heat".

you need winter clothes for 20 degrees? Wow. You feel the cold even more than I did before menopause.

I'd love air con in my flat right now - sleeping is very very difficult and I wake up every half hour or so with hot flushes. I have a fan aimed at my face no matter what the temperature is outside. Not sure what your point is though.

you need winter clothes for 20 degrees? Wow.

so do all the people working in my office, haven't seen one person with a summer dress or summer suit in the (many) years I've been working!

My point is that people wear winter clothes and shoes in the winter, summer clothes and summer shoes in the summer. It's unreasonable to expect offices to change the temperature to suit one single individual. Office temperature should follow the weather outside, not make people sick because of blasting cold air.

And don't understand why you call 20 degrees a winter temperature either? Going outside when the temperature is into minus figures must be really difficult for you?

You must live further south than me, we dont' really have seasons like that in Scotland. I think the office should probably always be around the same temperature all year round as much as possible and people should dress accordingly.

Ultimately it's down to striking a balance, you're at one extreme and I'm presently at the other. A happy medium is really the only way to deal with it, and I think it is more important that your desire to wear summer and winter clothes in season.

And don't understand why you call 20 degrees a winter temperature either?

ParisUSM just pointing out that it's the temperature the thermostat is set up in the office (more 21 or 22 i am told) in the winter, and even if you can't compare exactly winter and summer as the real temperature is a bit more complicated than that, people wear winter clothes in the winter!

When I go outside in minus temperatures, I wear appropriate layers and I don't sit still for hours. I am not wearing ski jacket and ski gloves in front of my PC at work.

Never once have I sat outside for several hours in the winter, I am not insane.

Well I just think if it's always 21 or 22 in the office, you'd wear the same type of clothes all the time and then have different outside clothing according to the weather outside.

I hate being too hot, how is 18C cold in an office environment when you don't have to factor the wind chill. I'd go for 16C. 20-22 is just daft, you don't need summer temperatures all year round.

I didn't say I expected someone to change the office temperature to accommodate me because I run cold. I'm aware that other people run hot just as I run cold. But it shows a distinct lack of imagination to ask "Why would anybody want to sit in 22 in winter? when surely it's not hard to think that just because you wouldn't want to, everyone else must share the same internal temperature

I don't expect the office to be set to the thermostat I have at home. But I reserve the right to say I'd be freezing in 16 - when I sleep with the heating at 20 overnight with full PJs, a sweater and a 13.5 tog duvet!

ikeepaforkinmypurse 100% agree

I just want to comment to the poster who expressed incredulity at the idea that someone could be too hot in light trousers and a vest, and that people don’t wear coats. Why is that hard to believe? I’m a very hot person and have literally never been too cold at any place I’ve ever worked. And that includes my last workplace when the heating broke during the winter and we got sent home because it was (slightly) under the legal minimum of 16c. Everyone else was shivering and layered up to the eyeballs whilst I was revelling in actually feeling awakek at work for once. If only they’d have let me stay I’d have had my most productive day ever, I’m sure! I

Oh, and I barely ever wear a coat. The last time was Guy Fawkes Night last year.

I know I’m at one end of the temperature spectrum and that there are people who excessively feel the cold at the other. In an office setting, neither of us should be catered for. Instead, find the middle ground which I guess would be somewhere around 20-22c which lo and behold is what the OP is proposing as a compromise. ;)

How do you survive in this country if you are uncomfortable past 20 degrees? The UK is everything but a hot country, but even here the temperature gets a bit higher than that.

With difficulty. Summer is my least favourite season.