To ask how you survive this cold as an office worker?

[ColdToesandWarmHeart]

I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I am freezing. Down to my bones. I have a heating pad under my jumper and a blanket on me and I finally feel warm for the first time this week.

I have ordered a hot water bottle but I don’t know what else I can do. I’m freezing. I’m on Mounjaro so I think it’s that, but I’m just so miserable.

I put my thermal vest on this morning.

A homeless man has been sleeping in view of my office window for 2 nights. My colleague and I took tea and mince pies out to him yesterday. I worried about him last night and wondering if he would survive the night. Was very relieved when he moved slightly when I placed some breakfast next to him this morning.

I work as a receptionist in a care home and when the door opens it's a cold draft. I have an under the desk heater, heated vest and fleecey tights on. I am lovely and warm

The last office I worked in (public sector) was so cold, I had to put on as many clothes as possible to go in. It was absolutely miserable for me trying to work when I was freezing all the time.

I wore fleece lined tights, socks and leg warmers over the top, trousers and boots, camisole top with another top over that, big chunky cardigan and had a spare cardigan in my desk drawer if I was still cold or to put over my knees.

The day I retired couldn't come quick enough for me.

I sympathise OP. 🙁

Honestly, it's really not that cold! Just wait until the snow falls and there's ice everywhere. Dress in layers with thermals, make sure your feet, head and hands are warm and try to get some exercise in the fresh air. You'll be fine!

I think most of us would be cold at the moment if we working all day without heating and then going home to an unheated house. It’s -2 here and I have the heating cranked up. to, for me, a comfortable 19 degrees. People with less body fat (and probably less muscle mass if you’ve lost all that weight) feel colder than people who are more well insulated. I am about 10lbs heavier now in my forties than I was in my thirties and even that reasonably small amount of weight gain has made me feel the cold less. Perhaps this is just your new normal that you’re now having to get used to. Doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything wrong with you, or you’re lacking in anything. You can either wrap yourself up and use heated gilets, heated blankets etc., or speak to the people (your Dad, your boss) who are responsible for happily watching you feel uncomfortable and miserable all day because your office and your home aren’t at a tolerable temperature for you.

OP, this isn’t normal. It’s an outrageous way to live. A heated blanket that does him no harm but gives you what you need and he’d Chuck it? I don’t bandy about the term abusive very often but that’s what it is. If you can’t be persuaded to get one, at least get a hot water bottle. You’re going to get ill with the temperatures in your home . I wear a merino wool vest, then thick cashmere jumper and a gilet and I need it 18 defreees or I get chilled

No legal minimum, but 16 degrees is recommended for indoor work.
It’s a shortsighted employer that expect staff to perform when uncomfortable.

It was 7 degrees in the house when you woke up?
And the heating got it up to 11?
No wonder you don’t warm up all day now you are on Mounjaro

My office is freezing this time of year. It's casual dress code thankfully and I just decided to not care about looking utterly ridiculous.

I have a hot water bottle in my locker, and a fleece blanket to put on my lap. Last year it got so cold I had to wear fingerless gloves some days otherwise I could barely type.

A lot of people wear their coats at their desk. I saw a couple of people in oodies last year and if it gets cold enough this year I will just do that. It's ridiculous but I'd rather be comfortable.

He’s always been like this. I wouldn’t say he’s abusive, he just grew up without central heating and is very precious about it. He sees it as burning money because it heats all the areas of the house without people in it. I don’t even have a radiator in my room 😂

You need to find out what the office temperature is and consult with your union if it's below the legal minimum.

Is your mother also subjected to this abuse and coercive control?

I’m not in a union.

I don’t think he’s abusive, it’s just one of his quirks. She seems to cope a lot better than I do though, I think I must just run cold!

So get someine who is in a union to raise it. A majority of NHS staff are in a union.

You work for the NHS and you're not in a union?

Of course your father is abusive Do you know what coercive control is? It's not surprising that you can't get warm at work if you're being abused and kept cold at home.

You're just rejecting all the advice you're being given though

Maybe we have different definitions of abuse but I don’t think it’s abusive to just not like the central heating

11-12 degrees is very unreasonable, nothing to do with MJ. And won't allow anything that would keep you warm?

It’s just how he’s always been.

im allowed a hot water bottle (I’ve got one arriving today), and he lights the fire to heat the main room but it doesn’t heat the rest of the house. I just need to make sure I boil the kettle when he’s up in bed so he doesn’t get too annoyed

If he's preventing you from taking steps to keep yourself warm he's abusive. It's not a question of having different definitions of abuse. He's exerting coercive control within the household. Do you not do any training in abuse or safeguarding in your job?

https://www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/employer/the-law.htm

16 is the legal minimum for office worker/ one where theee isn’t a huge amount of physical labour

For goodness sake. Listen to yourself. He's an abuser.

You’re allowed a hot water bottle?!
Did you have to ask his permission?

Has anyone mentioned heated gilets? I used to have one. You charge the battery pack which goes in your pocket and there’s a little on/off button in the chest. They’re amazing.

My husband bought me a heated gillet last year and it’s amazing!

Get one of the wee plug in heaters for your room and a heated throw. The heated chair pads are amazing. Also highly recommend Uniqlo Heattech Cashmere blend. Get a size or two up and wear as a base layer. Washes well also.

It’s just always been the rules.

he grew up in the 50s and 60s in a poor family. They used to have nothing, he’s retained that mindset. His view is that that central heating is literally burning money. He gets logs for free from a friend so the fire is fine, but this mindset has never left him. Him and my mum have plenty of money now and will literally fly to the Caribbean for three weeks to avoid January/february, but he just draws the line at central heating and electric blankets. He still has visions of the old ones that cost a fortune