Cold offices

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Need a happy medium. Ours hovers in the low 80's some days. I would rather have the "need to wear more clothes" problem. (but not at 62 degrees for sure).

+1. And the humidity is awful. All of my papers are now wrinkled.

[Anonymous]

Hang a thermometer and a white board next to your computer. Record the date & temp each morning on the white board.

[Anonymous]

I always feel better when I have real shoes on. I work in a pretty casual office, and on the first really hot day I came to work with ballet flats and no socks - completely forgetting about how miserably cold my office is when the ac is on. Now I'm back to real, thick socks and tie-up closed toed shoes. I'm sure I look crazy walking through the grocery store, but having my feet warm definitely helps. And of course I have a fleece jacket that lives in my office.

[Anonymous]

So wasteful, especially when most are struggling to keep warm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Normally it's the older women that push for the freezing temps. 70% of my office is menopausal women who just love sitting in 65 degree weather. It's awful.

Menopausal woman here and after weeks of suffering, months of complaining and finally finding the "right" person, the temp went up 2 degrees in my office. It's supposedly 74 I still have to cover up my outside weather appropriate work clothes with an ugly sweater jacket I keep in my office as well as wrap my legs in a blanket that I keep for this very reason. Winter time is better, bc I can pile on the clothing without looking too odd. Oh, and I too work in a LEED certified building. Multiple people have been busted for having space heaters, so it's a known issue.

[Anonymous]

This is just the worst. I work at an organization where one of the "values" is sustainability. And yet none of the many large buildings are kept at a reasonable temperature -- all are below 70 in the summer. It's such utter BS.

[Anonymous]

My wife used to sometimes bring a small plug in electric blanket to work to drape over her legs, but she thought it looked unprofessional. So for a present one year, I bought her a heated car seat cover (made for car seats). It came with a cigarette lighter adapter and I bought a converter to convert a cigarette lighter adapter to a AC plug. I got one that had a dial switch for off and various temp settings. She could leave it on the seat, but turn it off whenever she got up. It lasted just over 2 years. Fortunately she teleworks from home 4 days a week now and doesn't need it.

Another option, I have a small electric water pot for heating hot water for tea. When the AC won't shut off and it gets really cold, I'll turn it on, heat up water and put my hands in the steam for a few minutes to take the chill off. Then I turn off the pot. It only takes about 2 minutes to produce steam, so I do a quick warm up and then turn it off. This is often enough for me when typing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is because men wear way too many clothes in the summer. No way should men be wearin undershirt, tie, long sleeve shirt and a jacket when it is ninety degrees out! They are the ones who jack the ac down to 60 and the weather appropriately dressed women freeze.

There needs to be a change in what is considered appropriate office wear for men in the summer months. The most they should wear is khakis and a short sleeved polo and frankly I think shorts and linen pants should be ok too.

Yes, this is why. It totally sucks and it's really bad for the environment, let alone super uncomfortable for women in general (although when I was pregnant it was nice, and my supervisor loved it during menopause!).

There was a big campaign in...Brazil, I think, to get men to wear short sleeves to the office to save electricity in the summer.

I also shudder at the hypocrisy of a LEED-certified building being air conditioned below 70 degrees. Ugh.

pp here in the LEED building. Is there anything I can do to get this changed? Have their certificate pulled?? It was 60 the other day before I complained bitterly.

It is actually fairly challenging to become a LEED certified building. My suggestion would ask the lobby attendant / security to contact to contact the Property Manager and / or Engineer. You as a Tenant pay for operating expenses in your rent...