It's cold as heck here....

[pbray]

Well, actually, we're expecting another day of near-record heat outside. But indoors it's so cold that I'm wearing a sweater and preparing to don a fleece jacket. Yesterday my fingers were so cramped with cold it was hard to type.

Yes, this is the stereotype of the American office building. There isn't a thermostat anywhere to be found, instead we're stuck with the building settings which is supposedly more efficient than allowing individual thermostats.

I've already closed off the A/C vents in my office, to minimal effect.

When I thought about the downsides of being forced to move out of the old building into this one, I'll admit I never gave a thought to the A/C. Putting up with the paint & construction setting off my allergies, yes. Sad to give up a window office for a windowless box, yes. But I didn't expect to freeze.

There's some hope that when this floor is fully populated with people and their computers that this will generate enough heat to offset some of the A/C. Otherwise, I'm getting a space heater. I'll apologize to the planet for the environmental absurdity of it, but I can't work if my fingers are numb.

Comments

[shana.livejournal.com]

My polar fleece cloaks from Cloak and Dagger Creations are a standard part of my office attire.

Also the 'energizing support gloves' that I got at CVS work for warmth as well as wrist support. They don't cover the fingers, but do help. I use them for driving gloves, and at the first twinge of a wrist.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Those gloves sound like a great idea, thanks!

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Happens where I work sometimes, too. There are thermostats, but they affect different parts of the building differently, so when one department is shedding clothes to avoid heatstroke another is hunched over their keyboards wrapped in heavy sweaters and guzzling hot tea.

Well, okay, perhaps I exaggerate.

I have a new office, too, and for the first time in my working life a window. It's surprisingly warm in there in the afternoons -- surprising to me, that is, since I've spent the past ten summers in a sweater :P.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Ah, a window office. Bakes in the sun and freezes in the winter because it's not well insulated.

Mine was at ground level on a busy street, so occasionally my telephone calls would be interrupted by the sound of sirens passing by. When asked what was happening I'd usually advise people to wrap up the teleconference quickly before I was taken away.

Thinking I need a toy fire engine for my new office, so I can reproduce the siren noise as needed.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Ha! at the toy fire engine ...

Our building is just awful -- the story is that someone dared someone else to put up a building in X weeks on X $$, and it shows :^P. (OTOH, the university let us use it rent free.)