The fact of the right temperature in the office is one of the most common problems. In fact, put together many different people under one roof means to gather many organisms that work in their different ways, with different temperature controls and uneven levels of tolerance.
Four in five people are discontent with their office temperature.
In short, for someone who’s hot, there will always be someone who is cold.
In addition to disagreements among colleagues, the wrong temperature affects productivity. That’s the conclusion of a CareerBuilder survey of 4,285 full-time U.S. workers that found 22 percent claiming a too-hot workplace makes it difficult to concentrate at work. Eleven percent made the same claim about chilly workplaces.
What can we do?
Unfortunately there is not a permanent solution. Surely you can follow these 3 rules to manage the right temperature in the best way:
- a subsection of its technical manual of The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration does recommend temperatures ranging from 20 degrees and 25 degrees Celsius (68 degrees to 76 degrees Fahrenheit). It seems that in this temperature range occurs the so-called climatic comfort.
- Periodic maintenance of the system: filters of air conditioning equipment have to be changed or cleaned regularly. The presence of fungi or allergens can cause respiratory diseases and a constant discomfort during the working hours. This alters the perception of temperature.
- Dress appropriately, including dressing in layers or keeping a sweater or similar garment at your work station.
Let’s not forget humidity. Humidity affects how you perceive temperature. If it is humid your body can’t evaporate sweat easily, air doesn’t move over your skin easily and the world feels heavy. So keeping a good relative humidity and level is key to maintain a productive office environment.
CareerBuilder’s Haefner suggests optimistically that if the office temperature is a concern, workers and employers can “easily work together to find common ground so productivity does not suffer.”