Workplace sickness will surely increase wont it

[Friedbacon35]

With ever increasing termps aibu to think workplace sickness might spike in summer in future

I feel like I can barely do my job during the hottest part of the day felt like going to pass out

There needs to be legal maximum temp where you can just leave work

Hopefully it will push organisations to then install air conditioning

My school definitely won’t close (never does), but it got to 30 degrees in the classroom today. The kids were miserable and then I was miserable with all the whinging and whining. My year 10s were the worst today. I don’t expect school to close, but it’s really not a nice environment to try and work in for any of us.

It could be a legal requirement for every employer to have a plan to safeguard staff. The plan may not be perfect but it will at least require consideration of the specific circumstances. Once the temperature reaches a certain limit (high or low) it's time to invoke the plan. Yesterday I saw builders in high vis and hard hats pouring tarmac on a site nearby, it was scorching heat. I found myself thinking surely the site could close for the afternoon and open again in the evening to finish the job. It might not suit everyone now, but if that's the policy in heat over X amount then they all have notice and will be anticipating the changes. For other places it might involve air con or more regular breaks or purchase of a lighter alternative uniform. Maybe shelter for those working outside, like large canvases suspended from hooks. Rotating staff stations more frequently if people work with heat. Supplying an ice machine, buying fans, placing covers on windows during the day to prevent build up of heat. There are options to mitigate the difficulties. I don't think doing nothing and just shrugging it off should be OK.

Our recycling hasn't been collected yet, so I'm presuming bin men are taking it easy in the heat.

@SockPlant I am seeing them face to face in the office tomorrow.

@Resprayingmyaferraris stubborn ones with capacity!

I just got on with it. I think my beef was the fact the other staff left early and I wasn't considered. But I'm out of sight, out of mind. I'll speak to my manager face to face tomorrow. Thankfully I wasn't working today.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, I haven’t read the entire thread.
In response to pp who said about how we should be changing shift patterns—start early, finish early—this makes perfect sense! It is so much cooler in the early mornings.
But…I used to work for a delivery company and we used to start early and finish early. We’d be done just us it started to get unbearable(10-20 years ago) and I would thank my lucky stars in the summer that I was finishing early. In more recent times, as temperatures have steadily climbed, said delivery company moved shifts later and later in the day. So that now staff are out at the absolute hottest time of day, in vehicles with no air conditioning, with very little chance of shade or having a breather/go slow because it’s just too hot. You have to keep moving to get the job done. In this weather, it’s dangerous.
Those in charge have done this so that they can pay staff less (there was a financial incentive attached to the old, unsociable hours). And at the same time have reduced the workforce and made each job roughly twice the workload that it used to be, so that it is physically impossible to complete said job within the shift hours, and they refuse to pay any overtime so that staff can stay on top of an ever increasing workload.
I’m very glad not to work there anymore.

Unless there is a clear financial incentive for the big boss, or legislation, nothing will change.

No it puts a responsibility onto the employer to install air conditioning etc to bring temps down

Life is being affected all over the world by climate change when the weather changes from what is normal in that place.it typically affects children and vulnerable and then of course parents that can’t work or have to leave children, and of course the ones dying

And the same comments about to prepare better. Schools in India closing and going online at 41 degrees
Save the Children page on Tropical Storms

• Disrupted education. Schools are damaged, destroyed, or used as emergency shelters. After Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique in 2019, countless children were out of school for months.

And Climate change is making tropical storms more destructive. Warmer ocean temperatures provide more energy for storms to intensify, while rising sea levels increase the risk of devastating storm surges—walls of seawater pushed ashore by hurricane-force winds. Research shows that while the total number of tropical storms may not be increasing dramatically, the proportion of major storms (Category 4 and 5) is rising. This means that when storms do strike, they're more likely to cause catastrophic damage—particularly for children living in vulnerable communities with inadequate housing and infrastructure.

I bet you work in an office....

I just wanted to thank you so much for this excellent post and for explaining that to me. Thanks so much, it makes total sense.

Last time there was significant snow round here, DD2 got stranded with 3 of her friends waiting for a bus that never came. I was eventually called by a dentist who had seen them on his way home, gone and got his wife/her Range Rover and then driven back to take them to the surgery where they could get warm again. They then brought them home (and apparently nearly spun out on one of the hills in the process). At the same time, the headteacher of another school nearby had ended up spending the night at their school with several kids who lived too far away to walk and the roads were closed. The same year, there were news reports of people being found dead of hypothermia after trying to walk home.

Since then, schools around here have closed because of the risk of children getting stranded, not just staying in school, but because they could have been out in the snow trying to get home.

Heat is also dangerous - when public transport is failing to run because buses have overheated or rails have buckled - or because the local woods and fields are ablaze, it is absolutely appropriate to take steps to make sure children are not put at risk on a journey home, especially if they've already got an increased risk of heatstroke from a day in overheated classrooms.

Only in public sector because of fully paid unlimited sick pay but that is not new. Somehow private sector manages to be at work.

I work for a private company and we've had loads of people off sick during the heatwave and football.

Smaller firms in older buildings that are either listed or in conversation areas often can't get council approval. That's something that needs sorting out pronto. Councils shouldn't be able to veto small shops, small offices, etc., from getting air con installed. One of my clients has tried several times, even sourcing the least obtrusive external box/fan, but still council said no. It's going to cause even more small businesses to leave High Streets causing more empty shops/premises.

Can you pint me to employers with unlimited full paid leave🙈 would probably jump for that in case helath declines

I don’t think anywhere has unlimited sick pay.

There's no such thing. Very silly of you to post this.

As nice as the idea is installation and running cost would cripple a lot of businesses and finish quite a few off

How many excess deaths were there during snow days ?

Depends whose imagination you are inside.

100%. I work in a shipping container (metal box) and it was 34 degrees inside today 🥵🥵 I couldn’t think straight I was so hot!