If you work in a typical office setting, your workplace is probably either too hot or too cold at any given time.
Take it from Kaitlin Greenockle, a reporter for The Evening Sun in Hanover, Pennsylvania. She tells U.S. News that her newsroom, made up of four men and four women, had turned into “a battle of the sexes” regarding temperature.
“It started with a war over the thermostat where we would just go and change it when we felt uncomfortable, but now the men have been freezing us women out of the office,” she says. “Fortunately, our newsroom encourages us to go out into the community and work, so recently that’s what some of us have been doing. Just leaving.”
Greenockle’s problem isn’t unique. Over the years, temperature has been one of the bigger issues people are frustrated about at work. Temperature is an integral part of a workplace’s ambiance, according to Chris Congdon, the director of global research communications at Steelcase. The company specializes in office furniture, interior architecture and space solutions for classrooms, hospitals and offices.
Steelcase research found that the ability to have a degree of control over office basics — including temperature — led to higher levels of satisfaction with other factors in the office that might not be remotely related, like their office furniture, according to Congdon.
She emphasized, of course, that with any kind of shared workspace you’re going to have different perspectives on what’s comfortable for one person and what doesn’t work for another. People should also communicate to their organization what they need in order to be successful at work.
In The Evening Sun’s case at least, the problem is more funny than anything else.
“We have not brought it up to HR, we are all very laid back people and have just found it humorous,” Greenockle says. She later followed up, saying “we did come up with a way to fix the problem, have the men drink iced coffee instead of hot coffee.”
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If Your Office Is Too Hot or Too Cold, You’re Not Alone originally appeared on usnews.com
