To think employers should be required to provide air conditioning

[SweatingToTheGrave]

Yes I'm moaning about the heat!

I'm sat in the office which is a literal sun trap, sweating like hell, pregnant and with one measley fan blowing hot air in my face. My clothes are literally sticking to me and it's actually making me feel ill now.

AIBU to think that employers should be required by law to provide air conditioning for these sorts of weather conditions? I honestly feel like I can't work productively at all today.

Okay some might tell me to get a grip and maybe I'm being OTT because of the hormones but why should I sit here sweating through my clothes, feeling sick and with a headache because employers aren't required to have proper provisions in place

I'm considering not coming at all tomorrow if it's like this again!

user from a work perspective I bet people get far more done on a gloomy rainy day.

Oh, and you do know that there are lots of other weather options that are neither 38 degrees nor gloomy rain?

Pop a mini milk in your ... mouth

A colleague has recently purchased her own portable aircon unit for work.

I know fixed units have to be serviced regularly to avoid the risk of legionella, does anyone know it the same principle applies for a portable unit?

If so, should she be allowed to have it in work?

I have a friend who is currently in a terrible state having just come out of a medically induced coma after contracting leguonnaires disease abroad, so I'm a bit concerned but don't want to be difficult for the sake of it.

YABU. In older buildings it would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to install (if it was even possible) and that simply isn't worth it for 3 or 4 days above 30 degrees a year.

In your situation, I would invest in an effective desk fan. Or request to work from home.

With these heatwave type temperatures becoming more common I think they need to review the laws!

There is a lower limit in which people can work in but no upper limit because we don't generally have these temperatures. I worked from home today as I work in the upper floor of a converted barn which yesterday got to 42 degrees by 4pm!

I'm a chef and I really am struggling today.
I thought yesterday was bad but today is a different level of hell

I know fixed units have to be serviced regularly to avoid the risk of legionella, does anyone know it the same principle applies for a portable unit?

I think this only applies to the really large office tower type units that have a cooling tower on the roof. It's the water in the tower that the bacteria can breed in.

Munemama you mean she’s got a unit with hose vented out of the window?!

I have one of those at home, the filter needs cleaning but I’m pretty sure the legionnaires risk comes from the type that runs on cold fluid.

Trust me you'll get sick of the arguments over air con, in our office no body is happy with the temperature, either somebody is freezing or someone is too hot, there is literally no pleasing anyone
Oh yes. I had an employee like this once - every excuse under the sun why she couldn't 'endure' the air con (while I sweated in my non-air-conditioned office). Nightmare woman.

We have it at work but it doesn't do much in this heat. That plus horrible polyester uniforms makes working miserable.

There is no max temperature under HASAWA but if you look in the DSE regulations then you should be getting a break for 5 - 10 mins each hour if you are using a computer. The regulation also states, "Equipment belonging to any workstation shall not produce excess heat which could cause discomfort to operators or users".

As you are pregnant you require a risk assessment.

The WHO suggest 24C, Unison recommends no more than 30.

It's not possible in a lot of buildings though, my last boss wanted to install it but the council vetoed due to age of building/location (not aesthetically pleasing!). It's simply not allowed on lots of old buildings or city centre buildings here.

I work in a commercial kitchen in a listed building with no aircon. It's hideous and tonight is going to be horrible. Yanbu

www.gov.uk/workplace-temperatures

"There's no law for minimum or maximum working temperatures, eg when it's too cold or too hot to work. However, guidance suggests a minimum of 16ºC or 13ºC if employees are doing physical work. There's no guidance for a maximum temperature limit."

It's rubbish, especially when pregnant, but you just have to do your best to manage. There are good suggestions on here. Freezing a plastic bottle of water and standing it in front of your fan gives some relief.

I'm wearing a very light cotton sundress and am dripping. I'm drinking a lot of water! It's 30.3 degrees in our office at the moment, but I'm sure it's a lot worse for some.

Ours is showing 33 degrees at the moment

I'm all for nice weather, if I'm outside, able to wear what I want and not stuck in a stuffy office at a computer all day

Just a point to note as well - you mentioned you were looking forward to a cold shower later. It's not actually recommended to have a cold shower as our bonkers bodies react by making us hotter. Warm is best. And then nakedness and abundant ice lollies.

Places where it can’t be fitted could use portable ones. I can’t even seal mine up properly because if the way the windows are but it still reduces the temp by about 4c which is helpful. And most offices probably could do a proper seal.

Felt sorry for the bus driver yesterday. Unfortunately its going to take heat stroke or a heart attack at the wheel and a major accident before this country bucks its ideas up over this.

Im at home and wearing a wet top. The sofa is wet the bed is wet.

If i was in your situation OP id go to the loos Completely wet my top Put it back on and calmly stroll back into the office.

Bet your dress code says smart but doesnt say clothes have to be dry.

There is no upper limit but hey if we are doing things to rule......

You definitely need a fan. Try placing a frozen bottle of water in front of the fan.
I remember a sweltering summer when we all brought bowls and buckets to work and had our feet in cool water under our desks.
Dress code should also be ignored in this weather.

I feel the same! Currently 31 weeks and melting, also in an office with 4 other people and our resident attention seeker has declared "what heatwave" and has an oil radiator on next to them. Luckily we're near a shop that sells ice cream!

My office used to be a laboratory, then an archive room, until they ran out of space and made it into an office. It has no proper heating, just wall-hung electric convectors and no air con. The windows only open a few inches and look out onto a tiny courtyard with a brick wall less than 6' away.

They have also shoehorned an additional 6 desks in there, which has doubled the number of people likely to be using it, and today there were 10 people in, all using computers etc. It was like a fucking sauna today, when you walked in it felt all steamy, like the changing room at a public pool. We have a few desk fans, but they just seemed to waft the damp, hot air around.

The facilities manager's only advice was to shut the windows, to stop hot air coming in. We tried that, but it just meant it felt more humid, as the air wasn't circulating.

And everyone who came in commented on how hot it was, as though we hadn't actually noticed that it was hot enough to melt my mate's mascara.

If this weather continues, I'm going to decamp to anywhere in the building that there's a vacant desk and air con, as we have a hot desking policy that basically says you can use any old desk that's vacant that day. And I've ordered a thermometer that measures humidity as well as temperature, in case we need to have a more serious discussion about how crap it is.

Air con on all day in our warehouse today. Bliss.

My office has huge windows, none of which open, and worse than that, there aren't even blinds on about half of them. They are 'a design feature' so no blinds allowed.

I'm not so bothered about aircon if we could just open some windows.

I remember at one of my old places of work someone ended up going off with heatstroke from working in a too hot office. It was unbearable. The offices were originally something else and had window across the corridor ceiling. I'm also in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. It would regularly get up into the highly 30sC. We're not sure how hot as the terminator didn't go any higher!