Seems to be all ladies in here. How about one from a guy?
I see a lot of comments from both sides, "the ones who are *** should just deal with it."
How is this one? I don't work in an office per se. I work in a manufacturing plant. A steam molding manufacturing plant. It can cool down quite a bit in the mornings, but by afternoon it is about 90 F or better.... when it's 15 F outside.
The department I work in, I am in a small control room in an upper level on a platform up near the ceiling. Warm air rises. We don't have heat on our units, it is AC only. So, as I said, in the dead of winter, it is 90 on the plant floor. The room I work in has 1-2 people working production and me working special projects. Several of the production folks keep turning the AC up to 80! Their reasoning is, "It's freezing outside." What? What is the difference what the temperature is outside? It's 90 right outside the walls and door of the control room (even hotter because it is up in the ceiling.) We steam mold, the humidity is extremely high as well. I go out on the plant floor to do some work, then walk into the control room and it is just stifling with the lack of air movement, the humidity permeating through the thin walls and windows, and the AC set at 80.
Move on to summer. It is now generally 85-95 outside through the summers. Inside the plant, I have seen 115 F. I have also measured 94% humidity level. If that isn't hot and miserable, then I can't fathom what would be hot and miserable.
If you have to walk out of the control room for 5 minutes, you are immediately drenched in sweat that you look like you just walked under a waterfall. What is the AC temp set at? 80! 80 F feels great when you work constantly in 115 F with 94% humidity and have to walk into the control room for something, but it isn't when the majority of your work is being in the control room all day with that humidity constantly entering into the room.
We are always battling the thermostat. It is an old analog unit and doesn't work very well. It sometimes does have a 10 degree swing to it. I will compromise and set it halfway between the extremes, I and others like it cold (70-72, but I don't consider that "cold". That is textbook ambient) and the rest like it hot. We want it set at 70, they want it set at 80. Why can't people compromise and set it at 75? When the AC kicks on, it cools the room down to 72. When it turns off, the room warms up to about 78. Sounds reasonable to me.
The thermostat sits directly above my work area. The production folk's desk sits directly around a wall corner. One of the guys in production will reach around and tap the control every time the AC kicks on. I have seen the control set to nearly 90 because he doesn't look to see what it is set at. He just turns it up the minute the AC blower kicks on.
It drives me crazy when I'm out on the plant floor in the winter and though it's hot, the garage doors leak and we are constantly pulling trucks in and out, so where I am you get some cold air blasting in now and then to keep the temp toned down a bit. Then I go back up into the control room after running around doing the physical stuff on the floor to sit in front of the computer and start sweating like crazy because of the stifling still hot and humidity of the small enclosed space of a room.
