Have you ever walked into a company and noticed that the person in the front desk is hunched over, wearing three sweaters, and greets you with an ice-cold handshake – in August?
According to a 2009 study, employees’ top complaint is being cold at work — including during the summer. Do you see sweaters left on the backs of chairs or hear the hum of space heaters beneath people’s desks?
Take a quick look around you and tell me in comments – how many sweaters do you count on the back of chairs? (At a quick glance around my own area, I see five sweaters, jackets or wraps out of eight chairs.)
These cold offices are evidence of a brewing Thermostat War. Some employees are freezing while others are sweltering. Some could care less. But the very literal work environment is a big part of how we work. When you are cold, you leave your desk in search of hot beverages; you’re lonely or view coworkers around you as distant; and you don’t recognize others’ work because you are physically and psychologically withdrawn.
The idea of WorkHuman recognizes the humanity in employees. Employees are not robots. They need nourishment (coffee), friends (amiable coworkers), encouragement (recognition), and, yes, climate control (comfortable temperatures).
Productivity, money, and environment
According to a Cornell University study, employees made 44 percent more mistakes when room temperature was 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) or less. (Optimal temperature was determined to be 77 degrees Fahrenheit/25 degrees Celsius.)
Kate Lister, president of Global Workplace Analytics, noted when humans are in work environments below 70 degrees they are 4 to 10 percent less productive.
Companies may think they are saving money keeping temperatures low, but U.S. buildings alone could save $40 billion over seven years if theyworked on energy efficiency.
Psychological effects
Sally Augustin, Ph.D., an environmental psychologist and principal at Design With Science, says, “Being in a space at a particular temperature is one of those situations where reality can take a back seat to perceptions of reality.”
When it’s cold you can think your employer doesn’t care about your basic human needs — or you can believe your employer to be sexist or ageist. You can resent co-workers who turn the thermostat down or don’t notice the cold. You can feel lack of control over your environment (Lister even mentioned “at least one company that installed fake thermostats saw job satisfaction go up”).
Clients can perceive your company as callous when their first impression of your office is seeing a greeter at the front desk suffering in a parka.
Calling a cease fire in the thermostat war
- Change up the wardrobe
- Male managers, in particular, have power in this area, as they set the uniform for other males in the office. Experiment with wearing short sleeves instead of a suit jacket. Japan’s Cool Biz campaign has been employing this social experiment since 2005.
- Support your peers
- Ask a nearby, shivering co-worker if they’d like a coffee or tea on your way to the kitchen. Just do this once — not every time. It takes 20 seconds for the question and 20 seconds to pour a second cup of coffee. When you bring your coworker the hot beverage, you’ve recognized their humanity, brought them out of their shell, and made a friend and collaborator for future projects.
- Take control of the office
- Change the office temperature. The standard office temperature is outdated. The model was devised for men’s metabolic rates in the 1960s, proved by a study released earlier this week.
- Survey those in your office about temperature. Identify cool or hot office areas and question the use of space heaters or amount of layers used.
- Speak to the building manager about changing the temperature to productive levels.
- When HVAC systems break, get to work fixing it immediately and send an office-wide email recognizing the temperature and reporting actions being taken.
- Make warmer, unused rooms and conference rooms available for employees to share.
- If you have the money for the capital cost, change from central air to regional thermostats controlled by employees.
How comfortable are you at work? What are your co-workers wearing in summer and winter?