Chilly at Work? Office Formula Was Devised for Men

[riversedge]

Just like sports running shoes and heart disease and so much more--most research was based on men's body measurements!



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/science/chilly-at-work-a-decades-old-formula-may-be-to-blame.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article


Chilly at Work? Office Formula Was Devised for Men

By PAM BELLUCKAUG. 3, 2015
Photo
Molly Mahannah wears a sweatshirt and blanket at work in Omaha, wrapping herself up "like a burrito.” Credit Chris Machian for The New York Times

Summers are hot in Omaha, where heat indexes can top 100 degrees. But Molly Mahannah is prepared.

At the office, she bundles up in cardigans or an oversized sweatshirt from her file drawer. Then, she says, “I have a huge blanket at my desk that I’ve got myself wrapped in like a burrito.” Recently, “I was so cold, I was like ‘I’m just going to sit in my car in like 100-degree heat for like five minutes, and bake.’”

Ms. Mahannah, 24, who posted on Twitter that at work she felt like an icy White Walker from “Game of Thrones,” said a female co-worker at her digital marketing agency cloaked herself in sweaters, too. But the men? “They’re in, like, shorts.”
Continue reading the main story

Right. It happens every summer: Offices turn on the air-conditioning, and women freeze into Popsicles.
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage

News Analysis: Enduring Summer’s Deep FreezeJULY 4, 2015

Finally, scientists (two men, for the record) are urging an end to the Great Arctic Office Conspiracy. Their study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, says that most office buildings set temperatures based on a decades-old formula that uses the metabolic rates of men. The study concludes that buildings should “reduce gender-discriminating bias in thermal comfort” because setting temperatures at slightly warmer levels can help combat global warming..................

[jonno99]

1. Nah - mostly the issue is metabolism, age, & body mass.

Sometimes a thermostat is just a thermostat...

[Sunlei]

2. just bundle up so everyone else doesn't have to be hot, thank the gods for air conditioning :P

[snagglepuss]

3. I'm female and think this BS. I like working in cooler temperatures and get livid

that female co-workers want office temperatures to suit their CLOTHING. If an office is too warm men can't remove shirts and ties and women like myself can't remove blouses. However, if an office might be cooler than a number of women may find ideal, they have the option of wearing extra clothing, like a sweater. But almost every women I have ever worked with who complained it wasn't warm enough never donned a sweater or dressed in warmer clothing.

[tammywammy]

4. I'm never really cold in the office, but there's a lady I work with that's always cold.

I do have a bit more insulation, but she was raised in a tropical climate which I think has something to do with it.

Where I work the men wear suits often and never wear shorts. I'm okay with accommodating them versus the women (like myself) that wear skirts and other lighter clothes.

[NV Whino]

5. We had an on going battle in a place I used to work

One male, three females. The thermostat was in his office. We froze. If he left his office for a meeting, we would race to his office and raise the temp. When he returned, he lowered the temp again. He thought it was funny. We did not.

[Basic LA]

6. The formula is 72 degrees.

I worked the "Squawk Desk" at a massive aerospace complex in Southern California. When the temp dropped a degree below 72, all the "too cold" complaints to the desk came from women employees. One degree above, & the phones would light up from male employees complaining about the heat. This pattern was very predictable. Humans have a narrow comfort zone with temperature, 70 to 74 degrees. A big problem for facilities engineers.

[daybranch]

7. Back in the 60s , a feminist friend asked me to critique this issue

She had written an essay stating that men dressed in lighter clothing in the cold of winter than did women in order to appear tougher and more manly. As a man who did not tolerate cold as well as many men around me, I rejected her statements saying that maybe their time outdoors might be occurring with more physical work and thus more warming of their body. She continued to blast the professor for questioning the logic of her reasoning as an attack on feminists in general.
My wife is from Thailand and usually tolerates heat better than I do, but over the years and visits to Thailand, I have developed more tolerance to extreme heat than she has, However it is well known that women in Thailand are comfortable at temperatures 1 or 2 degrees centigrade than Thai men.
So yes, women are affected more by cold, I believe but the answer is not another BS battle of the sexes. The answer is trying to accommodate those differences in the most climate friendly manner. That method just requires the use of an individual floor fan for the men. In fact based on psychometric charts, moving air can make both men and women more comfortable at 6 or 7 degrees higher temperature depending on humidity and air conditioning in any form reduces humidity making fans more effective.
This study only states the obvious and creates discomfort where none is necessary. It ignores the tried and true solution adopted long ago in hot countries. Turn on the air but use the fan to cool the body as well where needed. This results in more energy saved and a happier group of people of both sexes.
We need to quit being technowits always ignoring the simple in favor of more complex solutions.

[louis-t]

8. Funny, in my office the women want it cooler.

The over 40 ones any way. The young receptionists wear sweaters. It will always be a battle but not necessarily exclusively women against men.

[ChazII]

9. Back in the 60's

my dad had to wear a suit, shirt with French cuffs and tie to work. During the summers it would always be a triple digit day but the dress code remained the same. He worked for Mountain Bell which kept this dress code until the early 70's. The dress code was changed so that during the summer months men could wear short sleeved shirts but when they made calls on the clients they had to have a jacket.

As a desert rat -- it is easier to bundle up to stay warm but there is only so much one can take off to remain cool.

[Thor_MN]

10. My personal pet peeve was people that complained of being cold, but never missed a smoke break/

At one job, they toned down the complaining when people started asking them when they were going outside (Minnesota winter) to consume a product that constricts your blood vessels. When that question became the standard response to "I'm freezing!!" it started to sink in, it was their own damn fault.

[IDemo]

11. Why do people want their homes to feel like walk-in refrigerators during the summer,

and toaster ovens during Winter-time? Makes no sense.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

12. Ok dad.

Now are you going to ask me if I'm working for ComEd?

[awoke_in_2003]

13. Conversely...

you can bump up the temperature and have to smell sweaty men all day.