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are you starting your menopause?
Minimum Working Temperature
- Thread starter platypus
- Start date
I can sympothise with you some way. I've just started a new job in the last month and i now work in an office in the middle of the building with only skylights and no windows so we have aircon.
The office is split into two rooms with 5 of us in one room and 3 in another, each has their own control panel to choose temp etc.
There is this one bloke who insists on having the temp so cold i have to keep on turning it up or off till he turns it back down minutes later.
Luckily he has gone to work in the smaller room this week so its nice and cosy in the other office. Just so you can imagine how cold it is we have the temp set to 20c and the coldness hits you when you went through the adjoining doors it was set that cold.
I would confont him about it but dont feel i can, i've been dropping big hints some days but he just jokingly calls me a pussy, really started to do my head in now
.
Can't choose your workmates unfortunately
The office is split into two rooms with 5 of us in one room and 3 in another, each has their own control panel to choose temp etc.
There is this one bloke who insists on having the temp so cold i have to keep on turning it up or off till he turns it back down minutes later.
Luckily he has gone to work in the smaller room this week so its nice and cosy in the other office. Just so you can imagine how cold it is we have the temp set to 20c and the coldness hits you when you went through the adjoining doors it was set that cold.
I would confont him about it but dont feel i can, i've been dropping big hints some days but he just jokingly calls me a pussy, really started to do my head in now
.Can't choose your workmates unfortunately
Seriously stop being a pussy, wear some more clothes if need be. We have a guy at work who is continuously whining about "the cold" when its 24oC in our offices. Hes the only 1 complaining and im pretty sure he does it for attention seeking purposes. Not that im saying this is the case with the OP.
Soldato
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In my office we are having the opposite issue. Where we are located in the heating/cooling system it means that we tend to extreme heat over and above what the system has been set too ... to the extend that i think at one point we hit 30C in the office and we have frequently had temperatures around 27-28C.
We just had to keep escalating so at the moment if i get in at 07:15 and it's already warm (~23-24C) then email to the guy in facilities normally means an engineer onsite by 09:00
...
Helps that our head of UK Health and Safety told us that whilst the rules over here use "reasonable" instead of a set maximum figure, the WHO recommends a temperature no greater than 25C for office work and they can't justify keeping us in the office over that, (so we go and work from home )
You might want to see what the WHO recommend for minimum office temperature, (I suspect ~16C but I'm not finding a link at the moment).
The TSSA site indicates that the '92 workplace regulations stipulate 16C after the first hour if the work doesn't involve physical labour.
We just had to keep escalating so at the moment if i get in at 07:15 and it's already warm (~23-24C) then email to the guy in facilities normally means an engineer onsite by 09:00
... Helps that our head of UK Health and Safety told us that whilst the rules over here use "reasonable" instead of a set maximum figure, the WHO recommends a temperature no greater than 25C for office work and they can't justify keeping us in the office over that, (so we go and work from home
)You might want to see what the WHO recommend for minimum office temperature, (I suspect ~16C but I'm not finding a link at the moment).
The TSSA site indicates that the '92 workplace regulations stipulate 16C after the first hour if the work doesn't involve physical labour.
True, but the difference isn't as great as it appears.
For example, I am fine going out to the loading bay in a short-sleeved shirt in winter, when it's a few degrees. If I do any physical work, the temperature isn't a problem.
On the other hand, when I cover the door at teatime (when the doorman is having their "lunch" break), I soon become extremely cold although the temperature is about 10 degrees. I'm very cold even if I wear a jacket over my shirt. The reason is simply that I'm sitting down and not doing any physical work. Or any work, most of the time. It's a good chance to do some reading - nice "work" apart from the temperature.
Sitting under the aircon...
I work in a bingo club. It's a very large place. You could fit a couple of football pitches in it. It comfortably seats about 1200 people. Air conditioning a room that large is a problem. A problem that isn't helped by people who ignore 500+ other available seats in order to sit right under a blower and complain about the draft.
Bah.
Great, got into work and all the windows are open full. It's like a bloody icebox in here. There's no real point my getting a thermometer to measure this room, as we're moving in two weeks, but I will probably need one for the new office.
No
. They all think it's a big joke, *******.
No
. They all think it's a big joke, *******.
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- In bed with your sister
I'm sorry if it sounds harsh but isn't it unreasonable for you to want the windows closed when this would presumably leave all of your workmates feeling uncomfortably warm?
I can sympathise to an extent, in the opposite direction. I worked in an office where the only heater was in front of my desk, all the guys in the office were like you and didn't like the cold so the heater was always on. I soon got them to move me as far away from the heater as possible.
I'm sure there must be a reasonable solution of some sort which would suit you all. Do you have any sort of team meetings or similar where you could discuss the problem? Make it clear to your workmates that, although they find the situation amusing, it's not. The temperature is affecting your work and possibly your health. Ask for their co-operation in finding a solution, whether it's moving desks or a fan heater under your desk to supply you with a localised heat source or whatever.
Also, if everyone else is comfortable at these temperatures and you are the only one feeling cold, that would indicate that you could have some sort of problem and a trip to see your doctor would be a sensible move.
I can sympathise to an extent, in the opposite direction. I worked in an office where the only heater was in front of my desk, all the guys in the office were like you and didn't like the cold so the heater was always on. I soon got them to move me as far away from the heater as possible.
I'm sure there must be a reasonable solution of some sort which would suit you all. Do you have any sort of team meetings or similar where you could discuss the problem? Make it clear to your workmates that, although they find the situation amusing, it's not. The temperature is affecting your work and possibly your health. Ask for their co-operation in finding a solution, whether it's moving desks or a fan heater under your desk to supply you with a localised heat source or whatever.
Also, if everyone else is comfortable at these temperatures and you are the only one feeling cold, that would indicate that you could have some sort of problem and a trip to see your doctor would be a sensible move.
It probably is, but I've already mentioned it's something I'd be willing to compromise on - the problem is they open all the windows, and create a draught through the office, one that goes straight over my desk and seemingly through me.
And they will not compromise on it, it's just funny that I'm always cold. It seems trivial, but every day I'm just getting more and more resentful.
Soldato
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Bring in an old oil drum and have a tramp style fire going by your desk 
Well we've moved to the new office, and I'm now shivering at my desk. The tossers at work put my desks next to an air con outlet, it's noisy and cold. There's so much literature and legislation involving working conditions getting to hot, but apparently so little about the cold .
I've started looking for a new job.
.I've started looking for a new job.
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Software. And no, I'd say there's no bullying in the work place. Doesn't help though.
One of my colleagues is permanently cold, even when the rest of us are nearly melting in Summer (with beads of sweat on our foreheads,) she insists on having a radiator on under her desk. There is something wrong with her body, or she (self confessed) is just accustomed to much higher temps than normal. What temperature do you keep in your house/flat, if I may ask?
defining characteristic of management, I'd say
Associate
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It's ridiculous putting you next to the air con if they know you feel the cold more than others. Ask to swap with one of the people who are always warm.
It's not unreasonable to ask to move places. Turning it off may be unreasonable on the others in the workplace but moving desks is far from unreasonable.
It's not unreasonable to ask to move places. Turning it off may be unreasonable on the others in the workplace but moving desks is far from unreasonable.
Caporegime
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Not to put to fine a point on it, you didn't cover yourself in glory by, with the sounds of it, repeatedly closing the window when everyone else in the office is baking to death.
Its insanely easier to put layers on to keep warm than it is to take layers off to keep cool. If 9 out of 10 are hot its not at all out of order to expect the 1 to put more layers on as its the easier solution, more convinient and more comftable for everyone involved.
Was there the option of moving desks in the first place, was that the first thing you asked or, as it kind of sounds did you mostly just keep shutting the windows. Again no offence but in any office if one guy does something to make the rest of the office uncomftable no one is going to look at that as nice or pleasant behaviour.
Putting you infront of the AC might be an a-hole move by the bosses, or it might not be, impossible for us to know. It might simply be that the office setup as the private offices at one end for the "bosses" and they desks filled up as most senior got desks closest to the boss as thats often how work delegates down. If the boss has to speak to the next guy down all day long it makes little sense to put him on the other end of the office. I'm saying without knowing thats all it could be, or they might have done it on purpose.
AT the end of the day theres plenty of things that can be done, a coat might look stupid, but a thermal vest can do wonders and can be completely unseen, moving desks out of the way , have a desk in a corner and have a cheapo partition thing put up as lots of offices have anyway.
But its worth going to the doctors, feeling cold and bad circulations can be symptoms of MANY different things, it could be something serious. It could be something as simple as a bad diet causing your metabolism to be incredibly low, burning fuel is what heats us. Something causing you to feel cold might be easily fixable or something you want or need to fix anyway.
Its insanely easier to put layers on to keep warm than it is to take layers off to keep cool. If 9 out of 10 are hot its not at all out of order to expect the 1 to put more layers on as its the easier solution, more convinient and more comftable for everyone involved.
Was there the option of moving desks in the first place, was that the first thing you asked or, as it kind of sounds did you mostly just keep shutting the windows. Again no offence but in any office if one guy does something to make the rest of the office uncomftable no one is going to look at that as nice or pleasant behaviour.
Putting you infront of the AC might be an a-hole move by the bosses, or it might not be, impossible for us to know. It might simply be that the office setup as the private offices at one end for the "bosses" and they desks filled up as most senior got desks closest to the boss as thats often how work delegates down. If the boss has to speak to the next guy down all day long it makes little sense to put him on the other end of the office. I'm saying without knowing thats all it could be, or they might have done it on purpose.
AT the end of the day theres plenty of things that can be done, a coat might look stupid, but a thermal vest can do wonders and can be completely unseen, moving desks out of the way , have a desk in a corner and have a cheapo partition thing put up as lots of offices have anyway.
But its worth going to the doctors, feeling cold and bad circulations can be symptoms of MANY different things, it could be something serious. It could be something as simple as a bad diet causing your metabolism to be incredibly low, burning fuel is what heats us. Something causing you to feel cold might be easily fixable or something you want or need to fix anyway.