To be worried about going in the office in this heat already?

[Chocolateapot]

I work in an NHS building on the second floor with no aircon. There are windows but these only open a fraction and don't let much air in. When it is hot it gets so unbearable I end up feeling genuinely unwell with a headache. A few years ago apparently someone fainted the office got so hot. AIBU for already worrying about next week in this heatwave?

I mean I’d say not having universal healthcare and medical bills being the leading cause of bankcruptcy was barbaric, but you do you.

Full access to free healthcare should be standard in a rich Western country, surely.

Fascinating pivot, but as someone with MS, heat regulation is a medical necessity for me, not just a preference. Also, I’m not remotely close to bankrupt from healthcare, so “well at least it’s free” wouldn’t really comfort me much while roasting on a stifling public ward with six strangers. If I’m sick enough to be hospitalized, I’d prefer the experience didn’t feel like a subway platform in August, but you do you.

Oh I see, let them eat cake eh? As long as you and Trump are ok that’s the main thing. OP’s in an office not a ward.

I'm in an office / clinical space, similar to a GP office (I'm not a GP).

Is this satire?

No, I just come from a place where doctor's offices and hospitals are generally expected to maintain temperatures that don’t make sick people avoid appointments.

As previously covered you come from a place where sick people can’t get treatment so it’s a moot point.

You also come from a place where tens of thousands of working aged adults die annually due to lack of health insurance, according to excess mortality studies, and hundreds of thousands of people file for personal bankruptcy due to inability to pay healthcare bills annually.

Starting a post on with "as an American " and stating that it's lack of Aircon that's barbaric in a healthcare context reads as satire, whether you meant it to or not.

It isn’t satire to expect a modern medical facility to provide a safe climate for vulnerable patients, but by all means keep using pathetic, xenophobic deflections to defend the NHS while pretending people aren’t waiting 5+ hours for ambulances or six months to see specialists under your supposedly “superior” system. It’s embarrassing.

Yes, and you come from a place where ambulances can take multiple hours and specialist appointments can take upwards of half a year so it’s a bit of a moot point. 🙄

@pinck As someone from the UK who works hard but isn't particularly wealthy, I'd rather the reassurance of our NHS than live in a country in which I may not be able to afford for myself or my children to be seen by a doctor should it be an emergency.

No ER doctor is going to turn you away in an actual emergency because you can’t pay at the door. That’s just not how emergency care works here. You can criticize American healthcare without inventing this melodramatic fantasy where a triage nurse checks your bank balance while you bleed out in the lobby.

You aren't the only non Brit on here - I come from a place with a different free to all at the point of use healthcare system. Insurance based but as a compulsory deduction from earnings with provision to ensure nobody can be without insurance, including those not earning. The USA is the only wealthy country in the world without one.

You’ll be fine.

I understand where you’re coming from.

My husband works in the NHS in a falling down Victorian hospital. His office is freezing in winter & stifling in summer. He’s retiring soon and has few shits left to give so has decided to work from home even though he was expected to go in today. Lucky for him he has the choice but it will be horrible for his colleagues who don’t have that choice today.

Sorry @Lastofthesummerwines I meant to quote @Chocolateapot

Get a fan.

Get the neck fans then they won’t need to be tested.

I’m in the NHS and the office is fine today. Lots of people being very dramatic

Do you think everyone has the same kind of office?

Offices vary greatly especially in the NHS - some don’t have windows that open properly, some have blinds that hade been broken for years. It’s unsympathetic to accuse people of being dramatic when you don’t know the conditions at their workplace.

In London it is forecast for 35C.

in an NhS building with no air conditioning: that will be awful

Terrible advice …

Take a fan, a cold drink in an insulated bottle or flask (you can even put ice cubes in it,) and a cooling towel (you can buy them on Amazon) and get to work. I regularly work in 30C+ heat, and people would be falling over themselves to do my job. Enthusiasm for the job seems to have at least as much influence on whether people feel they can do it in hot (or cold or wet) weather as the actual conditions.

I'd be happy for my team to take sick leave if work couldn't provide a suitable working temperature. I have sent them home before now when the heat was such it was clear people weren't coping

We’re not in some smart office with aircon! I just think OP is being a little dramatic and wanting a day off