Air con in the office!

[overthinkersanonnymus]

My office is absolutely freezing. The air con is on all day any I have to go outside every 20 minutes for a warm!

Anyway, our office is open plan but split in to two rooms by a divider. I asked my manager today if I could move to the other room for the summer (the other side doesn't have the air con blasting all day) and she said no, the team needs to stay together. She can literally see me over the divider if I moved.

I feel sick all the time and have a constant headache because the blower is literally on my face all day.

I feel like as a grown woman, I should be able to decide where in the room I can sit that's not massively uncomfortable for me. I'm such a people pleaser that I didn't even respond to her rejection of the idea.

Who's being unreasonable here and if it's me, what can I do about it?

Well I turn it off in my office when it annoys me if that’s not possible op you are going to have to speak up and insist that a compromise is met . Is it only you that’s so cold ? as I find it odd that your manager won’t do anything when you’re sat there shivering with your coat on . Explain that you are uncomfortable and it’s either turned down or you move .

What is this, school?!
Sit where you’re most comfortable my love. They can always call you over to collaborate.
Manager sounds a bit out of step with the times.
I’m neurodiverse and I always needed a quiet pod or separate area to concentrate. If I needed to I’d even go and work in the nearby Tate Modern for a change of scene.
I now have a sitting disability which means I can’t sit in an office at all so have to be fully WFH.
Everyone has different mental and physical needs. So you’re right, as a grown woman you should be trusted to do what your body needs for you to be productive and comfortable.

Find the thermostat and turn it up a degree or two.

Do you have an HR department? Can you get them to intervene? It can't be conducive to good work to have a headache all the time.

My old work used to do this - it was a call centre and no warm areas apart from the rooms management were in

They would blast that air con, including in the winter. Even in the summer id be wearing 2 jumpers.

The people I sat with moaned about it, and it was briefly addressed but then some of management's favourites moaned that it was too hot so back to blasting away we went.

My hands would be like ice, it was insufferable

They tried claiming it was where we sat, and that because we were a smaller group that was the reason?!

I used to take in and sit in my scarf, I did even consider a hot water bottle

We have this issue in work (although we don’t have air con) where half the team are perma cold and half the team are melting. I got fed up of the whinging so reshuffled everyone around so those who are warm are near the windows and those who were cold are further away from the windows. So far so good, and whinging significantly reduced!

After many temperature disagreements in our office, a thermometer was put on the wall to make sure it is kept at around average room temperature so 20/21. It would be freezing some days then roasting the next depending on who had got to the thermostat first (and the thermostat never read right so couldn’t be used to settle the debate).

In your situation, I think it’s unreasonable that your manager won’t enter into a conversation about it. Although did you explain how badly it’s affecting you? Rather than just ask to move. If you have & they still won’t listen, perhaps a fit note from your doctor stating you need to be sat in an environment where you are comfortable in the temperature due to the health issues it’s causing you. Or if your company is big enough to have a separate HR team/person could you speak to them?

You’re not being unreasonable at all you shouldn’t have to be so uncomfortable all day. What temperature is set to? I would say around 20 is reasonable, if it’s under 18 then definitely unreasonable. Maybe take it up with HR?