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Finally after sitting in icy cold conditions yesterday I emailed HR to take action.  They acknowledged this and this morning the Facilities manager came to speak to me.

He explained how the air flow works in the building and how it is managed and maintained.  Apparently the vents had been adjusted some months ago and he said he should have informed me.  He has indicated that various tests will be carried out in order to ascertain the full details and a resolution will be sought, even if it means moving my desk or altering our area.

One of his team has left a little piece of equipment on my desk which will record temp for today.  Then next week it will record details for the whole week so they can see the trend.

I have a temp guage on my desk this morning which says 23 deg and the airflow is cool.  However the technician showed me his guage and it said 22 with 56 deg of humidity.

It will be interesting to see the results.

We had a similar issue a few weeks ago, very cold for over a week in the building.  Our facilities team came in and shut off the vent.  The temp has improved.

Good luck with your situation.  Keep us posted on the outcome.

Gee - How are things today after the weekend? 

As usual in any building when it heats up, the aircon is triggered to cool the atmosphere.

The technician has just been with me and temperature at the moment is 21.  However as I explained to him, whilst that my be the case, it is the draught that is causing me problems.

Today it got cold about 9.30am and whilst I am warm, the cold air is blowing around my head, neck and shoulders so I am sitting in a draught for around 8 hours a day.

I had a sore throat and swollen glands from the week before and I am still trying to get over this but of course cold air blowing round me is not helping.

All findings will be fed back to Facilities at the end of the week.

I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

Jess (not hiding, just drowing in accounts and other peoples' work)

Well I know what will happen......after all the testing is complete I will probably be told temperature and humidity levels are acceptable, despite the draft.

The problem is the buldings are not purpose-built to be used as offices which is why such issues arise.

How about a bit of drastic measures.  Challenge them to do even half a day's work with the arctic wind blowing down their necks.  Testing an area is one thing - having to work in it for (what is it) the second (?) year running is not on!

Have you got one of those little spinny windmill thingy's at home or in a local shop somewhere that will show the breeze?  Put several of them around your workstation, especially when they are taking their measurements and/or your boss is there to see the conditions for himself.  The noise alone may provoke them into doing something for you.

Jess (well, have now posted twice and the wretched outlook email still has not got further than the outbox!)

Jess I'm a step ahead of you.

I have streamers blowing from my pc and have asked several people to just sit at my desk for 5 mins.  These are men who are on the go all day, moving equipment, working inside and out, who somehow don't feel the cold.

Once the fans knock off about 4.15pm, conditions are more or less normal, and they know that.  I shall just have to see what they propose to do to alleviate my discomfort.

Brrr!!!  On a cold and frosty morning when you have to defrost the car windscreen, you expect to come in to work to some kind of heat, right?

I have been in work just over 2 hours and my hands are so cold I can hardly type.  How on earth do you prove icy cold conditions when a thermometer says 21 degrees?

Gee - surely the thermometer must not be working properly?  21 is quite warm (to me anyway) so you shouldn't be feeling as cold as you do.  Do others who sit there agree it actually FEELS cold? 

They MUST sort this out for you somehow - you will end up ill if they don't.  Sorry, not much help but I feel very sorry for you.

I am told the temperature, humidity and airflow are all measured separately although so far haven't seen sight of the latter.

Yes others do feel cold but obviously haven't spoken up about it.  My colleague is cold today also and her boss is sitting with his jacket on.  We both went to the canteen for soup at lunchtime to warm us up, but this is not the answer as I have pointed out and will continue to do so, in the same way as wearing extra layers does not prevent a draught blowing around anyone's head.

The reason I finally raised this with HR is that whilst it is a facilities matter, HR will pull anyone (as any HR dept will do) who has 3 periods of sickness or more.  I want to avoid this as well as falling ill.

Monday's findings couldn't come soon enough.

OK, solution found. 

Go to a good DIY store, ask the guy for some tape used for sealing gaps in roof felt materials.  It is quite wide and will not allow any water or air through.

Take it to work and seal the air vents in your area off.

Draft gone, Facilities well and truly p'd off and no more cold Gee and colleagues! (side effect will also be that another area in the building will blow a gale and freeze them solid!)

I am so feeling evil today!, but cannot find the [devil] motif to put at the end of my mail!

Even more evil....how long is an employee allowed to be out sick at the expense of the environment they work in?!   >:(

Just going through some legislation regarding health and safety regulations in the workplace - it makes very interesting reading.

Don't want to bore you with details but suffice to say ventilation should remove/dilute humid air, without causing a draught.

Get your own thermometer and leave it on your desk.  Record the temps for a period of time.  Take a digital pic of the thermometer if possible at the time you record the temp in your log.  Question their findings with your own docmentation. 

Done that - reads between 21-22 degrees, however there are other factors which have to be considered.

Basically air temperature alone is neither a valid nor an accurate indicator of thermal comfort in the workplace so that argument will not stand - air velocity and humidity must also be considered as well a persons own physical characteristics eg. age, height, size, fitness level and sex.

Don't worry I'm armed with enough information if the results are not favourable.

I had a bit of an impromptu chat yesterday with the boss of the technican who has been carrying out the testing at my desk.  Informal as it was at the close of business yesterday, it seems I am going to have a battle on my hands.

Firstly whilst most airconditioned buildings are managed in the same way, my company manages their system on a much more stricter basis given we are a factory and have a production area.  That said it will therefore have an impact on employees as some will feel hot and some will feel cold.

Long story short, it seems the cool air I am feeling (not a draught I am told!) is 18 degrees which I find totally bizarre given that I was extremely cold on a few occasions this week.  I was shown a graph measuring the temperature last Friday which indicates it is sitting between 21-22 degrees - again bizarre.  However no reading could be taken from the measuring device on my desk for this past week so they will have to leave it with me for another few days.

Whilst I have to accept what the readings are showing, the powers that be have to accept how I as an individual am feeling during my 8 hour day in this environment.  As I had mentioned in an earlier posting, I knew the results would be in their favour and until I have a formal meeting with facilities and HR, I am at a loss as to what to do.

Well isn't it amazing the things that can be done if you complain long and hard enough.

I am informed that over the weekend, vents and airflow were altered on my side of the building.  It is clearly a different ambiance than that of recent weeks and NO cold air blowing in my face.  We shall see how long that lasts.

However I had to laugh.  The guy who informed me of the changes said they would of course continue to monitor the system this week, but since it affected a big area he would let me know if there were any complaints about it being too warm - hilarious!

For info I was at the theatre on Friday evening where the aircon caused so much discomfort even the staff were complaining.  Thankfully by the end of the interval it was turned off.

Be sure to drop a note to the Facilities guys who have closed the vents and let them know it is more comfortable now.  You get more flies with honey and they will remember you were appreciative next time you need assistance.  i hope it stays comfortable in there. 

Well I think I'll wait until the end of the week to see if it stays constant - best not to jump the gun too soon!  

* * *

I have just been informed that the adjusted conditions yesterday were causing problems for others, so the system has been tweaked again and will continue to be monitored.

 ;D

Gee

I bet the people who are now complaining are ones who previously had heaters on under their desks, thus causing the aircon to blow out additional cold air in your directions!

Good luck!

Jess

Jess you are so right, and this is one of the factors that was discussed recently.

If this company were strict on the things that mattered instead of the things that don't, we might be a much happier bunch.

End of day update...

Don't let anyone tell you that aircon in a building cannot be adjusted.  Apparently the air normally flows into this building at 100%.  Yesterday it was shut off to 50% causing the atmosphere to be "stuffy".  Today it was opened up to 75% making it much fresher.

Watch this space...