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.

As a female building design engineer...jeez...all very familiar. I used to do energy surveys of public sector building buildings where a large office - in WINTER - sub-zero in Edinburgh had women in strappy tops complaining how cold it was, the windows were open (because it was stuffy, back in the days of smoking in offices), illegal electric heaters under desks. And they took the hump when I mentioned ‘how about wearing a cardigan?’

When you consider how much wasted heat is due to ‘Female Thermostat Wars’ - that money could go elsewhere where it is needed most.

I worked at a RAF station in Germany and at the station entrance was the monthly energy bill with the words ‘Some Way You Pay’. Very true.

If the OP is in a large building - the chances are it will have BMS (building management system) - a computerised system which monitors boilers, pumps, fans, aircon. Have a word with you Facilities Manager. A lot of thermostats can be preset to a certain range, say 25 max even though the stat can say 28 - it won’t go higher.

I’m from the Highlands and lived in a poorly heated Victorian manse (vicarage) - we tend to dress for the weather and environmental conditions. Austrian friends on a visit to UK couldn’t believe how badly UK women dress. Strappy dresses in January. They think these women are prostitutes!!

I am currently designing schools. Max indoor design temp is 21. Passive ventilation helps dispersal of CO2 (helps with kids concentration) and to keep temp. A maximum of 80 hours of summer temps exceeding 28degC. There is NO aircon in classrooms. Buildings are designed and modelled on these conditions. We are designing to keep CO2 emissions as low as possible and operating costs as low as possible.

What a bunch of snowflakes!!

I used to work in an office with air conditioning, and it was set to about 20deg which was fine for everyone. Except me. Shall I tell you why? Because my desk was in the immediate firing line of the thing, and it was bloody unpleasant. I like being reasonably cool when I'm working, but I don't like sitting in a draught. It might be set at 20 but the blast sure doesn't come out at that temperature, it is much colder than that., and you feel frozen stiff after two hours of it down the back of your neck.

If you are really keen on cool air, then I suggest that the desks in the office are arranged in such a way that people who like the air conditioning can sit where they can most feel the effect of it, and the other people can sit somewhere draught-free.

Max indoor design temp is 21.

I'm sort of jealous. ;)

We used to have a thermometer in our physics class room...

It was occasionally 40+ degrees ;0 (not in the UK...)

And most windows couldn't be opened...

Being fashionable was so much easier when I lived in the UK because the weather was usually so moderate... (Not too hot or cold...)

Yanbu!!! I work in a restaurant and we will be sweating to death and someone will take off their jumper/cards and complain they are cold. Drives me insane

I live in the Middle East so have a/c everywhere I go. My home temp is set to 23 degrees which feels perfect. When I go to the UK in winter I set the heating to 21. A/c tends to feel colder than it is and heating warmer. I can’t stand a/c actually blowing on me.
Maybe agree to set to 23/24 and turn off when it gets to temperature (if it doesn’t switch off automatically).
I wouldn’t cope indoors at 27/28!

I bloody hate aircon. Dries out the air and circulates everybody's illnesses. Ugh.

Thankfully we have people like the OP who turned the aircon on ridiculously high, causing a backlash that means it is now off and we can only open windows. :)

I think room temp rules are a bit like hill walking rules (you all go at the pace of the slowest walker, not the fastest). You can’t take anything more off (although, I might be tempted to sit in my bra just to make a point)

I’m a really cold bitten thing, and I hate drafts. However, I work in an office with two others, and they’re both going through the menopause. They are doing all they can to stay cool, and the air con is on frequently throughout the day, with profuse apologies from them, but I seriously don’t mind putting my cardi on and occasionally my scarf.

If you are hot due to the menopause, I’d get an appointment with occ health. The workplace is supposed to make reasonable adjustments (like office temperature) to ensure you’re environment isn’t detrimental to your health. My colleagues head outside for a walk sometimes if even the aircon isn’t cutting it. Thankfully, I have a nice place of work.

Try working in a kitchen where you begin to sweat as soon as you walk through the door, but you can’t take off your chefs’ whites/kitchen shirt/apron/hat/trousers/steel toe capped shoes.

Try working in a kitchen where you begin to sweat as soon as you walk through the door, but you can’t take off your chefs’ whites/kitchen shirt/apron/hat/trousers/steel toe capped shoes.

I used to go into the walk-in freezer (-18C) when I got too hot. Heaven!

BanquoGhostie

Some frighteningly sexist rhetoric there!

I feel for you as I’ve been on both sides of the heating debate. My old desk used to be very cold as it was in direct line of the air con. Chap next to me was always fairly hot in his shirt so I was the reasonable person and kept a blanket type cardi thrown over my chair so if I got too cold I always had that to throw on. We then had a desk reshuffle as we had someone joining us and she took my old desk. She was always cold which I totally sympathise with, but where I sat you got no benefit of the ancient and poorly located air con. I would go into the office dressed in as few clothes as was appropriate and she’d still be cranking up the heat. Lost count of the amount of times id say “I can’t take any more clothes off can I please turn the heat down!” YANBU! Simple office etiquette.

i cant handle being hot it makes me irritable u cant take skin off but u can put bloody layers on

iceweasel what if the windows dont open

30 degrees are you nuts?

22 is bad enough, in the winter we have thermostat set to 20 and even then it feels stuffy. Poor OP, feel for you.

I yearn for a warm office. Mine is cold however hot it is outside. People come to visit us in shorts and vests or summer dresses and I'm sitting there with a fleece on to keep warm.
Having said that, it is warm enough in winter, so can't complain too much.

@3out that does sound supportie, I'd love to be allowed out for a minute when a hot flush hits. Unfortunately both of my female line managers like to play the 'well I dealt with it without complaining...' card. The sisterhood is not always strong.

I’m a nanny so just me and the children in my ‘office’ most of the time.

Occasionally my employer will work from home (or grandparents will visit) and moan about how cold it is in ‘my area’ (basement kitchen/playroom, MB has a study upstairs with south facing windows so it’s toasty in there most of the time!) and I just say, you can put on extra layers if you are too cold but do you really want me to walk around in my skivvies?!

In the office, I would stop wearing deodorant and spend a lot of time reaching over the chilly mortals saying, boy, I am so hot and sweaty in here today!!!

(When I started as a nanny, I was told (as all new mothers are now told), that babies cannot regulate their body temperate and if they get too hot they could die, if they are too cold they wake up and let you know! All of my charges, who were mere babies when I started and had naps in their prams in the garden in all weathers and now range from almost 33 down 4 years old, none of them feel the cold!)

I haven't lived or worked anywhere where the windows don't open. Fans use a lot less energy than aircon though. I have lived where summer temperatures can exceed 40 degrees and I did not have aircon or even ceiling fans at home.

@DailyMailReadersAreThick we only have three upright fridges, an upright freezer and a chest freezer.

I'm not sure I'd have a job if I got in the chest freezer!! Lol.

I set the thermostat to 16 degrees at home in the winter, so it's not that I prefer the heat. I just don't mind changes in temperature and need it to be 22 degrees at all times!

@ParisUSM there’s been a bit of a drive on recognising how the menopause can affect the workforce here recently, basically because they’ve realised that an enormous proportion of the workforce are of that age. Unfortunately, it does still just depend on how nice your direct line manager is. It’s rather like pregnancy, some bosses are great, and some bosses delight in reminding you pregnancy isn’t an illness and to just get on with it.
Why is there so little empathy, or even recognition, of the effects pregnancy, periods, menopause can have on women? Why are we quite ‘good’ with the colleague who hobbles in on crutches - everyone offers help, but when it comes to things that aren’t viewed as an illness (even if that person feels horrendous) we are crap?

IMO we waste far too much money and resources on air con when it simply isn't needed. I work in Sheffield, so it very rarely gets very hot, yet we have fierce air con blasting out al day every day. In summer I don't wear summer cothes to work because it is too cold. Just open a window FFS.

I keep extra layers at work to put on inside - when it's hot and sunny outside, but air con is blasting inside. I'll wear summer clothes on my commute, but have to wear sweaters etc at the office because it's frosty under Arctic a/c

Then again I'll also do the same in winter I feel the cold, but don't want to wear my coat indoors or else I 'won't feel the benefit' when I go outside! So I'll have a big cardigan and scarf on indoors when it's really cold, because the heating isn't usually anywhere near warm enough for me to wear 'just' my thermals and woollens

In winter I sleep in PJs, socks and cashmere sweater, under a 13.5 duvet AND the heating on at 20 at night.

If I wear summer sandals then I have to change into different shoes at work, because my feet go numb with the a/c indoors!

That’s ridiculously hot.

Not to mention unhealthy.

Stand your ground.

I hate this ‘ I’m so cold’ bollocks.

Put a fucking cardigan on.

good for you iced weasel do you want a medal

some windows dont open for safety reasons in tall buldings