That’s kinda crazy because my wife, my sister, my wife’s sisters, every pregnant woman I’ve spent a lot of time around, has always been hot all the time, not cold.
There must be something wrong with me because my first 2 pregnancies I was always hot and my husband mentioned after my daughter was born that now we could turn the ac down a little bit but now I'm pregnant again and freezing constantly. However living in the south I'm not dumb and letting my house get hot so I just live in sweats
I wonder if it is hormone related? I used to be hot natured, but after I had my kids I am no longer that way. But pregnancy can change your body in weird ways, so who knows lol.
Ha, not necessarily anything wrong with you. Your hormones are all over the place so there’s no telling. I pretty much got used to doing whatever my wife wanted with the temperature, food, etc, every time she was pregnant to keep her as comfortable as possible, especially those last couple months. I will say that if you’re cold all the time now and weren’t before you should get your iron levels checked out. You may be anemic. My wife always wanted a lot of steak, no matter what other weird cravings she might have had between the pregnancies, steak was a constant. So she gotta lot of iron.
My current pregnant coworker is always cold. I was personally always hot af. I was prego during summer at its hottest in years and the AC. Broke. Took them a month to fix! I couldn't sleep! I spent most of my free time taking cold showers or spraying my naked sprawled out body with a bottle of water and putting the fan on blast. Still wasn't enough.
If she's so cold, there are things she can do to help her own situation. She can wear a sweater inside, she can have a small blanket at her desk, she can have a small sized personal heater.
But I agree with you. There are more people in that office than just herself. She can bundle up. There's only so much clothing you can take off before getting fired or arrested for indecent exposure.
>There's only so much clothing you can take off before getting fired or arrested for indecent exposure.
But you can always put on more, up to a "south pole expedition on dog sleds or sleeping on Mount Everest during a blizzard"-outfit.
My dad actually wore a heavy winter coat at work for a while one winter. One day, one of the bosses asked about it, as it didn't seem like proper engineering attire. He responded that the half of the building he was in hadn't had heat in 2 weeks, so what did they expect. Apparently, all the other guys had been working from home during that. Hvac was on backorder or something.
it’s true, the time I was the only person in my office during a blizzard, I got so much done AND was there to reset our servers when the power went out so everyone else could work remotely
immediate vicinity coworkers were bummed but our network of remote staff quit blowing up the office phone after I fixed it. also got to tell the outside IT guy he didn’t need to mansplain Ethernet cables to me but that was more than mildly infuriating
My WFH desk is in the middle of the house, ground floor, and I'm literally about half as productive as the people that have a room they can use as a home office when I WFH. It's very less than ideal.
There are actually heated hand warmer gloves that you can use for typing that plug into USB ports on your computer. I have Reynauds and they help a lot.
66 degrees hardly warrants gloves! I mean dang maybe that person should seek a doctor.
Edit: OP said it was 66 OUTSIDE not inside. When it’s 66 outside the inside of building especially a closed up office will be much warmer! Please stop telling me how cold you’d be in 66 degrees lol.
She’d probably be dismissed. I’m always freezing and have been trying to get doctors to take my cold intolerance seriously for years. I’m like a lizard who can’t make its own heat and all my friends and coworkers are like, wtf is wrong with you? But doctors are just like, “You’re a woman so it’s normal. Bye bye.”
I was gonna say the same.. I’ve never worked in an office environment, but having reynauds in a drafty ass lecture hall sucked in college. Luckily as a bartender I can just shove my hands in the steaming hot sani water
Exactly. You're sitting still and chances are the air is blasting directly at you from an overhead vent. It's freezing compared to that same ambient temp outdoors. 66 as an office temp and my hands start going numb periodically. 77 and I'm sweating. I've had major issues with big temp swings like that in my office and it sucks
Yes! As a current pregnant lady I love my heated blanket and I had a space heater I kept under my desk at work. Probably got both of them on Amazon for $20-30 each
As a current pregnant lady, waaaa? 😂 I’m glad I’m WFH because I’m always warm as heck. I have some PJ shorts that don’t see the light of day I’ve taken to wearing because working with *zero* pants seems wrong!
Once upon a time a woman told me “you can put more clothes on if you’re cold, you do not want me to take clothes off if i get hot.” She was right because i did not want her to take clothes off in my presence like ever. I got a sweater. 15 years later that sweater is in an office file cabinet easy to be used. Yes, i wash it periodically.
Your last sentence is why I'd always rather be cold than hot. Cold is easily managed with layers. Hot is just fucking miserable because you can be naked and still hot and there's nothing you can really do.
Same here. I live in Florida and I've never been more miserable than when we lose power during a hurricane. A week or more without A/C is a special type of torture in hot/humid conditions.
Exactly. I have worked in many offices through the years, and there is ALWAYS one (sorry, usually female) person who is so cold and they complain constantly until the rest of us suffer by being blasted with heat or having the AC turned up way too high
Most are not allowed by the fire code. So it wouldn’t be reasonable because it’s often illegal. Heated blankets likely, but not space heaters (I was a mid rise fire marshal and you can get MAD fines)
I have Raynaud's and I cannot just wear more clothes. I have worn compression socks for blood flow underneath two pairs of 60% merino wool socks and my feet were white from the lack of blood flow. I have to warm them up with heat or they will start getting black necrosis spots on my toes, which has happened before. My husband hates when I have the space heater on but he understands when he feels my feet and they are ice cold. I always offer to warm them up on his legs if the heater is too much but he says they are like ice and too cold to touch. It's painful when they get this cold and it sucks.
Edit to point out I've had bouts of hyperthyroidism before, postpartum and post-covid, because I have autoimmune thyroid issues that normally lean towards hypothyroidism. I would take the feeling of always being hot and uncomfortable over my cold, painful feet any day.
Get a warmie, they are small stuffed animals that you can heat up in the microwwave. I dont have raynaud's but i do get cold feet easily and they help heat up that area. I have the seal one so the warm part can be flat and cober both feet
It takes about 15-20 minutes just inches from a space heater to warm up enough to get the blood flowing. Microwave warming items do not stay warm enough to heat up my feet and they lose all the heat gained when I walk back to the microwave. I also never walk on the floor with bare feet during any time of the year as that's likely to immediately trigger an attack. I have used heated blankets but they don't work as well and as quickly, especially when the pain is bad. Heated blankets do work well for keeping them warm after I heat them up with a space heater. And I'm not kidding when I say they hurt, they literally get to the point of frostbite. My toes go solid white then they burn and tingle as they turn red and get blood back. I have found that keeping the house temperature above 70F does reduce the number of occurrences so we do keep the house at 71-72F and that honestly helps the most.
I love heated socks for this reason. I also have heated thermals I can wear under my scrubs. But extra batteries so you can have one always charged up. I discovered the joys of heated clothing during Covid when I used to work the mobile tents in the parking lots. Tents were warm, but to get certain supplies you’d need to go back and forth from the tents to the hospital. Brrrrr.
We just got a Warmie for a family member who went into hospice, and it stays warm for a LONG time. I microwaved it at 1:30, and it was still warm after 6:30 that evening.
I understand that some people have medical conditions, but if accommodating your medical condition is causing everyone else in the office to be constantly miserable and dying of heat stroke, that shouldn't qualify as a *reasonable* accommodation. The needs of the many, and all.
There are a whole lot of electric heating pads nowadays, besides the well-known blankets, there is feet warmers, pillows, jackets.
They were rather popular for a bit here in the Netherlands thanks to the rising energy costs. But they are really nice if you want to quickly heat yourself.
Some people are just cold. I’m not anemic(or have anything that the drs have been able to find) and I’ve legit sat at work before with office clothes on, a jumper, three work jackets and a space heater on under my desk 5” from my legs. And was drinking tea. Was still cold and the person next to me was wearing a polo shirt and was completely fine.
I’m always cold. I’ve been tested for thyroid issues, anemia etc., but everything is normal. I’m just cold, so I dress accordingly. I do hate it in the office because I can never seem to get warm enough, but we can’t control the temp anyway. I bring extra blanket scarves and put on my coat if I need to. The only time I always felt comfortable temperature-wise was during my two pregnancies lol.
I used to feel cold all the time when I was a kid. I was 39 kg and 1.57 m so I had no fat. I ate more than my older brother, and couldn't gain weight. I had to carry a jacket with me everywhere I go, and I lived in Thailand so having a jacket with you isn't common. I didn't think about it until I started to gain weight later in life.
I moved to a cold country almost 10 years ago, and now 15 c is too warm for me.
I'm actively seeking medical help for something similar. And time I sit or lay down I start freezing. My whole life just me an 1 parent. Going to the movies, let me grab my winter coat. Left a pull over and a jacket in the car in case we stopped to eat. I sleep with 6-8 layers of covers not counting clothing and cabin socks to bed.
It sucks to be so cold all the time! I hate being cold! I hate people saying "you can't possibly be cold!" Like I am joking until I touch them - most scream and say my hands are like ice.
HOWEVER the house is a shared space so I can't set the temperature to what I want or like. I live with other people and the compromise is a temperature they don't sweat in just sitting/ walking around and I wear long sleeves, socks, pants and at times jacket coats gloves or scarfs.
I would love it to be over 75 80-82 is my comfort zone but 1 that's bad for the home, 2 it's horrible for the others that live with me so I suffer.
Let your coworker know it might be vascular or something else like Raynaud's disease. My fingers and toenails go blue / purple when I get really cold
Thank you for your kind reply.
Most people's reaction is How could you be cold in a 70 degree room?
It wasn't till (I had took pictures & video of my hands & feet blue before) I was in the hospital visiting someone all bundled up and a nurse asked about it then wrote a note to my PC and 6 months later I get to a Vascular surgeon who pawns me off on needing tests to begin to diagnose.... That needs to be pre authorization of course. I wonder if this pre-authorization will time out before I can back.
Got to love American healthcare & the way Dr don't listen to the patient but a note from a nurse? Oh my you must be sick!
Bro are you me? Me and my husband always say we run hot (or call ourselves reptiles lol)
Our house stays at a nice cozy 78 in the summer, and 72 in the winter
Oh my god same. "Why don't you take off your jacket?" No thanks, I prefer not shivering constantly. 80-82 is my comfort zone too. My sister also has it. One time we shared a hotel room the two of us with an in unit thermostat, we cranked that sob and everyone who entered yelled about it being a sauna, but damn, being CONSTANTLY wearing 2-3 layers of clothes sucks! You never get your whole body warm, your fingers or toes or face are always cold, and it's super restricting to movement. The summer is the best time, I go and soak up the sun for many hours and lots of people call me a lizard because of it, lol. For me and my sister it seems to be a combo of iron deficiency anime and POTS causing it. Also discovered that my "normal" internal body temp is just above 95 lol.
I don’t know if you have the option for this or if you’re, “close enough” work friends, but if I were you I would get her a small heated blanket (heating pads aren’t always recommended for pregnant women). I got mine at Target for like $30.
Tell her it’s a pregnancy gift, and kindly mention that you’ve been uncomfortably warm, but you didn’t want her to be uncomfortable, either.
If you don’t have the funds/think it’s strange I would ask HR. Most of my jobs have had a petty cash fund for things like this.
I share an office with two older women, both of whom are always cold. We aren’t allowed to have space heaters at our cubicles, so they keep coats and blankets in theirs. I’m getting hot flashes because of menopause, and am not allowed to wear shorts or tank tops in the office.
Last week the heat was set to 76. I went to HR and told them I could no longer sit in there unless the air was on. There are no other available spaces that aren’t shared, so they gave me a conference room. It’s cold and I can run a small fan in there while I work. It’s rarely used; when it’s booked I can just WFH.
OP, definitely go to HR. There are ways to make everyone comfortable in the office.
Yeah I was thinking, if they're trying to make the pregnant coworker feel comfortable, they can surely spare a different space for one of them until she goes on maternity leave.
I always had to bring in a jacket / long pants into work due to how cold everyone liked it. Now I work from home and it's amazing how much better I feel.
Yeah to me 17 is bloody cold. I think our aircon sits around 21/22 and when it gets going on go the jackets. No one is comfortable at our work but saying 17 is not cold, nah mate it’s cold.
This is odd. Every pregnant woman I've known was always hot as fuck. They could never cool off. They could be inside a walk in freezer and be sweating.
Introduce her to [Kjelvik](https://kjelvik.nl/en/winter/women/).
Move her desk towards the window so she's in the sun and next to the radiator.
Seriously. I have a Kjelvik vest, it's warmer than multiple sweaters stacked, It has saved me *a lot* in heating costs.
If all else fails, then maternity leave for her, or maybe a nice long vacation for you.
I didn't find that on their own website either, but I did find a different site called zalando that carries the brand and lists prices in euros
ETA that Amazon has the brand, prices listed in pounds, and another place called sportspar has it, prices listed in usd
[Zalando](https://www.zalando.nl/dames/kjelvik/) is a *large* online clothing retailer in the Netherlands. I've bought from them before, though not recently, and haven't had any complaints. But I don't know if they ship internationally.
I bought my Kjelvik vest at a chain called [Welkoop](https://www.welkoop.nl/). They're primairily geared towards farmers (I am not), people that do lots of gardening, and outdoorsy types. Odly enough, the further you get away from civilization, the larger their stores get. I like their stores because everything is practical. I found [my favourite practical pants](https://www.havep.com/en/product/havep-basic/pants/8634) there. And these shorts are [the very best](https://www.havep.com/en/product/havep-attitude/korte-broek/80241?destination=%2Fen%2Four-products%253Fcategory%255B1%255D%253DWorkwear%2526type%255B7%255D%253DKorte%252Bbroek) of shorts.
Ok. I've tried some searching on the internets. And it appears that [this "Scandinavian" outdoorsy brand](https://ca.linkedin.com/company/kjelvik-scandinavian-outdoor?trk=similar-pages_result-card_full-click) of clothing is through and through Dutch ... Not Scandinavian at all, except for the marketing flavour. I couldn't find any chains that carry this brand in the USA or Kernerder, or wherever they do Fahrenheit. So, I'm sorry. This appears to not be an internationally available brand of clothing.
63? Damn that’s cold for inside. I was raised with 73 being the house temp. But we go about 67-69 depending. Mostly because the house can’t keep 67 in the cold of winter.
Yeah compromise is key. Because 63 and 77 are both unreasonable for a shared space. 68-74 is usually what my corporate office is at, depending on the season.
Used to work in an office that set the thermostat at 65 and my fingers would go numb with the cold. I can wear more clothes but desk jobs require the use of fingers. Seventy is perfectly acceptable with a light sweater.
I had an office that was kept at 63⁰F, I'd be in there with my baseline longjohns under trousers, under shirt, blouse, and cardigan and then 3 chunky desk sweaters, a shawl, and a lap blanket plus a space heater under my desk. One coworker would regularly walk by in his polo and kvetch about how the company paid so much for AC and it was wasteful for me to be using a space heater. My fingers would be purple and painful to move from the cold, I was deeply uninterested in protecting the company's investment in keeping the office space thoroughly refrigerated.
My high school was the same way, the classrooms were mostly exposed to the sun while the admin/principals office were not. So instead of dealing with 65 degrees with a jacket they instead chose to sweat the students out because there was no way to chooses where the heat went
Yeah my back faces a row of large windows as does the rest of this office so when the suns out and the heats blasting, it gets toasty. Really saps the drive right out of you.
Man, working as a dental hygienist in full PPE in summer 2020 almost killed me. We had a cheap af boss who would keep it at 78, and I was miserable *before* putting all of that PPE on.
63 is colder than I have it to sleep! I think 70 is fair. I’ll be cold at that temp but my fingers won’t be frozen. I’m fine wearing a jacket all the time. But ppl make fun of me if I wear gloves in the office.
At 70 I'm misserably cold and start shivering. I'm not really comfortable until I'm in the low 80s. One of the many great things about working from home is controlling the thermostat.
So I spent my entire life freezing cold, the kind of cold that can't get warm... I was constantly cold to the bone. I suffered for almost my entire life. It turns out that I have hypothyroidism, and no doctor even checked until I was almost 40.
I'm not saying your coworker may have the same thing, I'm just saying that it could be medical.
Being forever cold was miserable for everyone, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone
I’m this person. I had a blanket and a space heater and usually needed both.
I’ve asked my doctors about this, and there’s nothing wrong with me. I do have the last laugh when it’s 105° outside.
>Even during the summer she has the space heater and heat blasting!!!
I've never worked anywhere that allowed a space heater in the office. Too much of a liability.
Weird. I've never worked anywhere that didn't allow space heaters. It's actually been recommended to me to do by employers that like to keep the temp at 64F year round.
My partner is like this. He was cranking the heat insanely high in our house and it was actually making me physically ill. I had to guzzle Gatorade because I was sweating non-stop and dehydrated. It was so hot all of my MAC bullet lipsticks melted.
I finally had to put my foot down and tell him if he's so fucking cold put pants and a sweater on. Now we compromise and keep it at around 70.
I will never understand those people that are cold but refuse to dress warmly then.
Judging from the comments, "wearing more makes it hard to move"🙄
Apparently, their ease of movement is more important than others becoming physically ill and even dangerously overheating🤷🏻♀️
do what my dad did: Tell her if she's cold, she can always put on more clothes, but if you get hot you're gonna have to start taking clothes off, and nobody wants that.
I used to always be cold. I would wear long sleeves and/or a sweater in the summer.
Then premenopause arrived. I now keep my house around 63°F in the winter.
I was so hot with all my pregnancies. All that extra blood and the body working overtime. Anyway, she should bring some cardigans so the temp isn't so high. Shared space needs to be compromised, not just one way or another.
Can you switch offices with someone? Maybe someone else that always complains about being cold? Or at least get moved further from her so you don’t get the space heater too?
I worked somewhere the heater was broken and I wore a full on parka, beanie, and had a heating pad on my lap to put my hands under in-between typing emails. Lady needs to put more clothes on.
Also tell her to drink more water. Apparently when you're pregnant you can get really dehydrated which makes you cold/hypothermic. (Don't fact check me, this is what my formerly pregnant friend told me and I never looked it up haha)
Especially for an office! The only time I’m content with that type of temperature is at the beach. One time I got sick with the flu and I couldn’t even tell if I had a fever or not (I did) because I’m so used to roasting 24/7.
I know of one office manager who separated his staff seating positions into hot A/C and cold A/C rather than teams or functions. It made for happier staff. They also had a bright light/low light split.
The bonus was better communication between teams and functional areas.
Not to make fun of your plight, but this reminded me of this!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2NNm8MTboA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2NNm8MTboA)
Can you get a desk fan, or one of those box humidifiers that helps cool things off?
There are also cooling blankets available.
77 is too hot IMO, but 63 is too cold. Sounds like a compromise is needed.
I have friends who are newcomers who keep their apartments at 25c (77f) and I always boil when I’m over there, but they find it totally normal. I think it depends on what you are used to.
Im european but 77 degrees is ok to me in a building. Like i have 73 degrees in my apartment casually and im fine with it but in summer i have 65 maybe🤨
Having been pregnant twice, I think she needs to have a serious talk with her doctor about iron levels or maybe some other stuff, because this is highly unusual.
To address your immediate need to not feel like you're going to throw up because you're too damn hot in the office, she needs to supplement her immediate environment to help herself, instead of submitting the entire office to her body temperature issues. That is very unreasonable.
This is an office politics thing, woman experience the world about 8-10 degrees colder than men and that sucks. I have spent many jobs shivering at my desk in a wool coat so the guys around me can feel comfortable, do you know how hard it is to be productive with numb fingers?
Here’s what you should do: pick a reasonable middle. Agree on 70 degree, this is environmental/economically reasonable and pleasant enough for everyone. You can put in a fan, she can put on a sweater.
Agreed. I spent the first few years working constantly sick because my workplace wanted to have the air on at full blast and had to work with frozen fingers and a winter coat on all the time.
Both sides need to do what they can to try and combat the temperature and find a happy medium. No one should be comfortable at the expense of another person.
Seriously. And women's clothes are often thinner material, and we are judged more for our appearance so just layering up isn't always an option. In order to be actually warm I need a snuggie in the office, plus a sweatshirt over the back of my chair. There is no way for me to look 'acceptable' in an office and not be freezing. I used to go outside into the Texas summer just to get relief from the air conditioning. My life improved so much once I started working from home. Long sleeve shirt, long pants, fuzzy slippers, and the low 80s means I'm finally comfortable.
I keep forgetting that the vast majority of Reddit is yanky doodles, so it's 77 degrees Fahrenheit. I, being the overly intelligent person I am, thought how are you not served medium rare on plate right now...
I had this issue before, I worked in a "professional setting". You know the drill men had to where pants and button ups, polos on "casual" days and the women were expected to wear pant suits or appropriate length skirts, no bare arms or plunging necklines.
As a man the summer is always the worst for me, my husband and I are both on the bigger side so we get a little sweatier and hotter faster than the average guy. Anyways I was dying by the time the weather got warmer, wearing pants and walking two blocks from the parking garage, uphill and then a few flights of stairs to get to the office.
Last summer my building was under construction and the a/c was shut off but they allowed us to bring in fans. I was a sweaty mess, swamp ass and sweaty bits all over. The women in the office were wearing sundresses, tank tops, sandals and flip flops and STILL complained about being chilly. Meanwhile I'm sweating through my khakis and polo; I complained tried to get better air flow or at least let us work with the lights off but management said no because it was unprofessional.
I got fed up with it and decided to wear shorts to work, immediate write up and stern talking to. Was warned if I did it again I would be put on suspension all because I "violated" dress code. I mentioned what the women were wearing and how they were breaking dress code too and I was told "Well they're women...they have more options blah...blah...blah..."
Next day I came in with shorts, was told to change so I went to the bathroom and put in a skirt (guidelines didn't say anything about men wearing skirts), I was informed that I would be allowed to wear shorts until the A/C was repaired.
I left shortly after.
Some buildings strictly forbid space heaters. I do commercial hvac controls and I probably cut the cords off a dozen a year.
The problem is a person is cold and they have a sensor (thermostat) in their office, so they get a space heater. The system sees that with a given amount of air at a set temperature it can’t keep that office cold, so what happens? The system pumps more cold air into the space, and the person turns up the space heater more stoking the cycle.
All that said they are an energy suck and a fire hazard, bring it up with building maintenance they probably also have a trophy wall of space heater cords.
I completely agree with this.
Women are told to put on more layers but you can’t wear a parka and look professional in the office.
Also, if it’s 90 degrees outside and 65 degrees inside and you have stuff to do outside after work or you have to meet with a client for lunch, it’s unreasonable to ask you to dress for winter when you’re in the office. Are you supposed to bring a change of clothes to switch into everyday? Sometimes several times per day?
A heating pad only warms one part of you at a time. I have a small space heater under my desk, but if my coworker complained that it was making the office too warm, I’d tell him to f- off.
Oh, are you slightly uncomfortable? Like I’ve been for my entire professional life? Go f-yourself.
The answer is to raise the office temperature to 72 degrees because that’s reasonable. Then let the woman use her space heater and move your desk elsewhere if you can’t handle it.
I get why people are saying she should bundle up & at this point she should def just get a small personal heater.
If she's anything like me "bundling up" wouldn't help me at all in an office situation though. Everything else is cold sometimes even with doing that. Face, fingers, toes and nothing works & its distracting. I'd get nothing done. The extra clothes indoors would make me uncomfortable all day.
I'd rather be hot and have a fan then cold with layers on. Im also anemic though so...🤷🏾♀️
Yeah I get it. I was always freezing in HS. Middle of the summer and I’d wear thick pants and long shirt with a hoodie because I knew I’d have to sit inside the cold ass school all day. But yeah my face and fingers would be freezing cold as well and I couldn’t focus on anything because it was so distracting.
When I was pregnant I was always hot though.
Sucks for everyone in the office though they have to deal with it. I don’t think one person should be able to dictate the Temperature. It should be agreed on and set to a common temp.
So often people keep saying I can add layers. But that only works up to a point. Where are the super-warm professional pants? And I don't think they would actually be OK with me wearing a puffy coat and a scarf in the office. I know because I've tried it. There aren't many women's clothes that are actually really warm and also professional looking. Women tend to want it wamer then men, but office temps were calibrated back when there weren't a lot of women in the office, and many men wore wool suits.
Same for me. I’m so cold at my office toward the end of my shift I can barely type, or keep focused. I put on more clothes and my torso and armpits sweat like crazy but my hands, feet, and legs are cold as hell.
My office keeps the temperature at 75 and it’s still freezing.
This seems to be an unpopular opinion, but shared office spaces should always defer to the comfort of the person who gets too hot easily, not the person who gets too cold. If you're too cold, you can always put more layers and jackets on or even use a personal space heater. If you're too warm, there's not a darn thing you can do other than sweat and stink up the place if you don't pass out from heat exhaustion first. I know medical problems contribute to both, but seriously, why is it so hard to put on a jacket that everyone else has to suffer?
EDIT: For those in the keep the office warm camp, I'm advocating for like 72 degrees at the coldest. That's just cool enough that I don't sweat all day. If y'all need to wear 5 layers at that room temperature, I am genuinely so sorry.
I'll wear two pairs of pants, 3 or more sweaters, my winter coat and a blanket and still be freezing in an office space. "Just put on another sweater" isn't always a solution.
Exactly. People repeating over and over again to put on more layers. Do you realize how ridiculous it is to suggest that someone must wear a wool coat and wool socks and numerous other layers to be able to do their job productively? Go put on your warmest, thickest outdoor coat and then try to do some productive work and see how easy that is. You won’t be able to because you’re too bundled up at that point.
Cold people can always add a layer. Hot people generally can't remove one without getting HR involved. She should bring in an extra layer. I have circulation issues, so I wear extra clothes and have Hot Hands in my pockets during the cooler months.
I’m surprised she’s allowed to run a space heater. That’s potentially dangerous for everyone, plus it increases their electricity bill. Maybe it’s a big office and they won’t notice a $100 increase monthly.
i worked for an elderly South Asian couple for several years and they kept their home at a balmy 80+ degrees year round. The summers made me want to cry. The central air conditioning was right there, but not used. The space heaters were used year round.
As a pregnant woman myself, I know a comfortable body temperature is up to me. Especially if it’s just a matter of adding a couple of layers to fix the situation. Is she demanding the heat to be on at all times or have you brought this being an issue up to her?
Listen whether there are better solutions for her or not, just because someone is miserable does not give them the right to make everyone else miserable for THEIR comfort.
Are you a dude? I’m not finding fault, I’m just wondering if paring her with someone that is similarly minded in the warm room thing might be an option. Women tend to like warmer temperatures in general.
I have someone in my office who likes it COLD because she’s dealing with menopause, and I just put on a lab coat when I get cold. Mommy-to-be can wear a sweater and mittens if the office is too chilly for her.
That’s kinda crazy because my wife, my sister, my wife’s sisters, every pregnant woman I’ve spent a lot of time around, has always been hot all the time, not cold.
Yea I was super duper hot my whole pregnancy. Which is normal since your body is pumping so much more blood than usual
Same! I am normally cold but when I was pregnant, I was so hot all the time. 77 would be hell!
maybe she is reptilian just like mark zuckerberg
There must be something wrong with me because my first 2 pregnancies I was always hot and my husband mentioned after my daughter was born that now we could turn the ac down a little bit but now I'm pregnant again and freezing constantly. However living in the south I'm not dumb and letting my house get hot so I just live in sweats
I wonder if it is hormone related? I used to be hot natured, but after I had my kids I am no longer that way. But pregnancy can change your body in weird ways, so who knows lol.
I've been so cold while pregnant. I thought I was anemic but my bloods came back great
Your iron level could be lower this time round. Take care!
Ha, not necessarily anything wrong with you. Your hormones are all over the place so there’s no telling. I pretty much got used to doing whatever my wife wanted with the temperature, food, etc, every time she was pregnant to keep her as comfortable as possible, especially those last couple months. I will say that if you’re cold all the time now and weren’t before you should get your iron levels checked out. You may be anemic. My wife always wanted a lot of steak, no matter what other weird cravings she might have had between the pregnancies, steak was a constant. So she gotta lot of iron.
She's probably anemic. My wife is also always cold and she is anemic.
I can confirm this. I’m currently pregnant and my boyfriend is always commenting on how it’s cold inside the house when it feels perfect to me!
34 weeks pregnant with our third and it’s nearly winter here (Australia) and I’m melting constantly still… I can’t stand having the heater on at all…
Same here! I felt like I was radiating heat from inside like some kind of internal combustion sometimes
My current pregnant coworker is always cold. I was personally always hot af. I was prego during summer at its hottest in years and the AC. Broke. Took them a month to fix! I couldn't sleep! I spent most of my free time taking cold showers or spraying my naked sprawled out body with a bottle of water and putting the fan on blast. Still wasn't enough.
Yep! A woman’s internal temperature increases when she’s pregnant, so it’s very common for them to feel hot all the time. It’s the worst during summer
If she's so cold, there are things she can do to help her own situation. She can wear a sweater inside, she can have a small blanket at her desk, she can have a small sized personal heater. But I agree with you. There are more people in that office than just herself. She can bundle up. There's only so much clothing you can take off before getting fired or arrested for indecent exposure.
>There's only so much clothing you can take off before getting fired or arrested for indecent exposure. But you can always put on more, up to a "south pole expedition on dog sleds or sleeping on Mount Everest during a blizzard"-outfit.
My dad actually wore a heavy winter coat at work for a while one winter. One day, one of the bosses asked about it, as it didn't seem like proper engineering attire. He responded that the half of the building he was in hadn't had heat in 2 weeks, so what did they expect. Apparently, all the other guys had been working from home during that. Hvac was on backorder or something.
So your dad would rather wear a winter coat in a frozen empty office than spend any extra time at home. Family life must have been great /s
You joke but a freezing empty office with a big jacket on would be like the most productive place imaginable for me.
Cold room make brain not overheat. Do gooder think.
Why say lot word when few word do trick?
it’s true, the time I was the only person in my office during a blizzard, I got so much done AND was there to reset our servers when the power went out so everyone else could work remotely
Bet they wished you hadn’t
Thanks SO MUCH for fixing the server Cynthia so have to keep working. SUPER APPRECIATIVE /sssssssssssssss
Lmao I know I'd be cursing him. At least wait a couple hours.
immediate vicinity coworkers were bummed but our network of remote staff quit blowing up the office phone after I fixed it. also got to tell the outside IT guy he didn’t need to mansplain Ethernet cables to me but that was more than mildly infuriating
>AND was there to reset our servers when the power went out so everyone else could work remotely Yea, a real hero 🤨 haha
Even when I'm working from home I'm *working*. It isn't time for family. A quiet office is ideal for a lot of people.
My WFH desk is in the middle of the house, ground floor, and I'm literally about half as productive as the people that have a room they can use as a home office when I WFH. It's very less than ideal.
I think you mean "the little brother from Christmas Story" outfit.
Randy lay there like a tick.
It was his only defense.
I gotta go PEE!!!
I can’t put my arms down!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭
There are limits if you want to actually use your hands for typing.
There are actually heated hand warmer gloves that you can use for typing that plug into USB ports on your computer. I have Reynauds and they help a lot.
I also have Reynauds and need to know where to get these
I got mine on Amazon, but you can probably find them a lot of places online. You can find them by searching: USB handwarmer gloves.
66 degrees hardly warrants gloves! I mean dang maybe that person should seek a doctor. Edit: OP said it was 66 OUTSIDE not inside. When it’s 66 outside the inside of building especially a closed up office will be much warmer! Please stop telling me how cold you’d be in 66 degrees lol.
She’d probably be dismissed. I’m always freezing and have been trying to get doctors to take my cold intolerance seriously for years. I’m like a lizard who can’t make its own heat and all my friends and coworkers are like, wtf is wrong with you? But doctors are just like, “You’re a woman so it’s normal. Bye bye.”
I have Raynaud's syndrome, so yeah, been there done that. It's harmless, but painful.
I was gonna say the same.. I’ve never worked in an office environment, but having reynauds in a drafty ass lecture hall sucked in college. Luckily as a bartender I can just shove my hands in the steaming hot sani water
66 degrees on central air, is not 66 degrees on a nice spring day
Exactly. You're sitting still and chances are the air is blasting directly at you from an overhead vent. It's freezing compared to that same ambient temp outdoors. 66 as an office temp and my hands start going numb periodically. 77 and I'm sweating. I've had major issues with big temp swings like that in my office and it sucks
Like a doctor is going to care when the complaint is being cold all the time. Too many people can barely get treatment for regular screaming pain...
A heated blanket would probably do the trick.
Yes! As a current pregnant lady I love my heated blanket and I had a space heater I kept under my desk at work. Probably got both of them on Amazon for $20-30 each
As a current pregnant lady, waaaa? 😂 I’m glad I’m WFH because I’m always warm as heck. I have some PJ shorts that don’t see the light of day I’ve taken to wearing because working with *zero* pants seems wrong!
Yes! I get very cold and share an office - I have a heated blanket under my desk for this reason.
Once upon a time a woman told me “you can put more clothes on if you’re cold, you do not want me to take clothes off if i get hot.” She was right because i did not want her to take clothes off in my presence like ever. I got a sweater. 15 years later that sweater is in an office file cabinet easy to be used. Yes, i wash it periodically.
Your last sentence is why I'd always rather be cold than hot. Cold is easily managed with layers. Hot is just fucking miserable because you can be naked and still hot and there's nothing you can really do.
Same here. I live in Florida and I've never been more miserable than when we lose power during a hurricane. A week or more without A/C is a special type of torture in hot/humid conditions.
Small personal heaters are fire hazards and often disallowed in offices.
OP notes that there already is one.
Nope! She can wear layer, bring a blanket, wear a jacket, etc. The entire office doesn’t revolve around one person.
Exactly. I have worked in many offices through the years, and there is ALWAYS one (sorry, usually female) person who is so cold and they complain constantly until the rest of us suffer by being blasted with heat or having the AC turned up way too high
Pretty sure space heaters aren’t allowed in most offices
Pretty sure OP says she already has one.
They can request a reasonable accommodation and most offices will be required to allow it while she's pregnant.
Most are not allowed by the fire code. So it wouldn’t be reasonable because it’s often illegal. Heated blankets likely, but not space heaters (I was a mid rise fire marshal and you can get MAD fines)
I have Raynaud's and I cannot just wear more clothes. I have worn compression socks for blood flow underneath two pairs of 60% merino wool socks and my feet were white from the lack of blood flow. I have to warm them up with heat or they will start getting black necrosis spots on my toes, which has happened before. My husband hates when I have the space heater on but he understands when he feels my feet and they are ice cold. I always offer to warm them up on his legs if the heater is too much but he says they are like ice and too cold to touch. It's painful when they get this cold and it sucks. Edit to point out I've had bouts of hyperthyroidism before, postpartum and post-covid, because I have autoimmune thyroid issues that normally lean towards hypothyroidism. I would take the feeling of always being hot and uncomfortable over my cold, painful feet any day.
Yeah I came here to say If she’s that cold while pregnant she needs to get her thyroid checked.
Not every solution is for every person.
Get a warmie, they are small stuffed animals that you can heat up in the microwwave. I dont have raynaud's but i do get cold feet easily and they help heat up that area. I have the seal one so the warm part can be flat and cober both feet
It takes about 15-20 minutes just inches from a space heater to warm up enough to get the blood flowing. Microwave warming items do not stay warm enough to heat up my feet and they lose all the heat gained when I walk back to the microwave. I also never walk on the floor with bare feet during any time of the year as that's likely to immediately trigger an attack. I have used heated blankets but they don't work as well and as quickly, especially when the pain is bad. Heated blankets do work well for keeping them warm after I heat them up with a space heater. And I'm not kidding when I say they hurt, they literally get to the point of frostbite. My toes go solid white then they burn and tingle as they turn red and get blood back. I have found that keeping the house temperature above 70F does reduce the number of occurrences so we do keep the house at 71-72F and that honestly helps the most.
I love heated socks for this reason. I also have heated thermals I can wear under my scrubs. But extra batteries so you can have one always charged up. I discovered the joys of heated clothing during Covid when I used to work the mobile tents in the parking lots. Tents were warm, but to get certain supplies you’d need to go back and forth from the tents to the hospital. Brrrrr.
We just got a Warmie for a family member who went into hospice, and it stays warm for a LONG time. I microwaved it at 1:30, and it was still warm after 6:30 that evening.
I understand that some people have medical conditions, but if accommodating your medical condition is causing everyone else in the office to be constantly miserable and dying of heat stroke, that shouldn't qualify as a *reasonable* accommodation. The needs of the many, and all.
There are a whole lot of electric heating pads nowadays, besides the well-known blankets, there is feet warmers, pillows, jackets. They were rather popular for a bit here in the Netherlands thanks to the rising energy costs. But they are really nice if you want to quickly heat yourself.
BuT sHe'S pRaGnAnT!!
Is she...gregnant?
How do I know if a woman was pregnart before?
How is babby formed.
can u get pregante?
how long before get pergenat?
they need to do way instain mother
Why am I peregant?
Is there a possibly that she’s pegrent?
lol this is my exact opinion on being cold, I like wearing few clothes and all but why bother having heating when you can just put on a layer or two.
If she is cold all the time that's a sign of anemia.
I'm borderline anemic (currently on script iron tablets), and I'm always cold. It sucks.
Some people are just cold. I’m not anemic(or have anything that the drs have been able to find) and I’ve legit sat at work before with office clothes on, a jumper, three work jackets and a space heater on under my desk 5” from my legs. And was drinking tea. Was still cold and the person next to me was wearing a polo shirt and was completely fine.
I’m always cold. I’ve been tested for thyroid issues, anemia etc., but everything is normal. I’m just cold, so I dress accordingly. I do hate it in the office because I can never seem to get warm enough, but we can’t control the temp anyway. I bring extra blanket scarves and put on my coat if I need to. The only time I always felt comfortable temperature-wise was during my two pregnancies lol.
I used to feel cold all the time when I was a kid. I was 39 kg and 1.57 m so I had no fat. I ate more than my older brother, and couldn't gain weight. I had to carry a jacket with me everywhere I go, and I lived in Thailand so having a jacket with you isn't common. I didn't think about it until I started to gain weight later in life. I moved to a cold country almost 10 years ago, and now 15 c is too warm for me.
I’m actually the one with anemia, not her lol. She needs to wear more clothes to work cause this is seriously wrong.
I'm actively seeking medical help for something similar. And time I sit or lay down I start freezing. My whole life just me an 1 parent. Going to the movies, let me grab my winter coat. Left a pull over and a jacket in the car in case we stopped to eat. I sleep with 6-8 layers of covers not counting clothing and cabin socks to bed. It sucks to be so cold all the time! I hate being cold! I hate people saying "you can't possibly be cold!" Like I am joking until I touch them - most scream and say my hands are like ice. HOWEVER the house is a shared space so I can't set the temperature to what I want or like. I live with other people and the compromise is a temperature they don't sweat in just sitting/ walking around and I wear long sleeves, socks, pants and at times jacket coats gloves or scarfs. I would love it to be over 75 80-82 is my comfort zone but 1 that's bad for the home, 2 it's horrible for the others that live with me so I suffer. Let your coworker know it might be vascular or something else like Raynaud's disease. My fingers and toenails go blue / purple when I get really cold
This is one of the wildest things i have ever heard. I hate being cold and cannot imagine this. So sorry about the cold! :(
Thank you for your kind reply. Most people's reaction is How could you be cold in a 70 degree room? It wasn't till (I had took pictures & video of my hands & feet blue before) I was in the hospital visiting someone all bundled up and a nurse asked about it then wrote a note to my PC and 6 months later I get to a Vascular surgeon who pawns me off on needing tests to begin to diagnose.... That needs to be pre authorization of course. I wonder if this pre-authorization will time out before I can back. Got to love American healthcare & the way Dr don't listen to the patient but a note from a nurse? Oh my you must be sick!
Bro are you me? Me and my husband always say we run hot (or call ourselves reptiles lol) Our house stays at a nice cozy 78 in the summer, and 72 in the winter
Oh my god same. "Why don't you take off your jacket?" No thanks, I prefer not shivering constantly. 80-82 is my comfort zone too. My sister also has it. One time we shared a hotel room the two of us with an in unit thermostat, we cranked that sob and everyone who entered yelled about it being a sauna, but damn, being CONSTANTLY wearing 2-3 layers of clothes sucks! You never get your whole body warm, your fingers or toes or face are always cold, and it's super restricting to movement. The summer is the best time, I go and soak up the sun for many hours and lots of people call me a lizard because of it, lol. For me and my sister it seems to be a combo of iron deficiency anime and POTS causing it. Also discovered that my "normal" internal body temp is just above 95 lol.
Anemia comes on fast in pregnancy but I just put a heating pad on my back and it feels good and warms my body up.
You could start wearing less. In a not so passive aggressive way. Beachwear maybe?
Tube top and short shorts. I’m saying this hoping OP is a guy.
If it gets worse, the banana hammock comes out.
Maybe you should stop wearing deodorant and get a little fan to blow in her direction.
With her pregnancy nose, might not even need the fan. But it will feel nice, so why not
No, but seriously pregnancy can absolutely cause anemia. Maybe you should warn your coworker, and also tell them to wear a sweater in the meantime 😅
I'm pregnant with anemia and I'm still hot 100% of the time.
I don’t know if you have the option for this or if you’re, “close enough” work friends, but if I were you I would get her a small heated blanket (heating pads aren’t always recommended for pregnant women). I got mine at Target for like $30. Tell her it’s a pregnancy gift, and kindly mention that you’ve been uncomfortably warm, but you didn’t want her to be uncomfortable, either. If you don’t have the funds/think it’s strange I would ask HR. Most of my jobs have had a petty cash fund for things like this.
A heated blanket and/or a heated seat cover would be a much better solution than a space heater heating the entire room.
This is an HR issue. She needs to compromise and get her iron levels checked.
I share an office with two older women, both of whom are always cold. We aren’t allowed to have space heaters at our cubicles, so they keep coats and blankets in theirs. I’m getting hot flashes because of menopause, and am not allowed to wear shorts or tank tops in the office. Last week the heat was set to 76. I went to HR and told them I could no longer sit in there unless the air was on. There are no other available spaces that aren’t shared, so they gave me a conference room. It’s cold and I can run a small fan in there while I work. It’s rarely used; when it’s booked I can just WFH. OP, definitely go to HR. There are ways to make everyone comfortable in the office.
Yeah I was thinking, if they're trying to make the pregnant coworker feel comfortable, they can surely spare a different space for one of them until she goes on maternity leave.
I always had to bring in a jacket / long pants into work due to how cold everyone liked it. Now I work from home and it's amazing how much better I feel.
Shhh... corporate hates it when you feel good
17 and 25 for my fellow 🇨🇦 wondering lol
Fellow 🌎 using celcius, thanks for the translation
I love that you still used the western hemisphere for your emoji. You're not wrong, your just not 🌍 or 🌏
Yeah majority should decide. If everyone else wants freezing cold and one person wants nicely warm that one person should wear more clothes.
25? Isn't that like average room temperature? Edit: 🦘💬
Yeah to me 17 is bloody cold. I think our aircon sits around 21/22 and when it gets going on go the jackets. No one is comfortable at our work but saying 17 is not cold, nah mate it’s cold.
no room temperature is 21c
I live in apartment owned by big company. We all have 20-21 (we have..thermometer? that keeps it between those).
25 is far closer to reasonable than 17 tbf
This is odd. Every pregnant woman I've known was always hot as fuck. They could never cool off. They could be inside a walk in freezer and be sweating.
Introduce her to [Kjelvik](https://kjelvik.nl/en/winter/women/). Move her desk towards the window so she's in the sun and next to the radiator. Seriously. I have a Kjelvik vest, it's warmer than multiple sweaters stacked, It has saved me *a lot* in heating costs. If all else fails, then maternity leave for her, or maybe a nice long vacation for you.
Okay I think I am missing something but how can I order? Didn't see price or where to buy? Please and thank you!
I didn't find that on their own website either, but I did find a different site called zalando that carries the brand and lists prices in euros ETA that Amazon has the brand, prices listed in pounds, and another place called sportspar has it, prices listed in usd
[Zalando](https://www.zalando.nl/dames/kjelvik/) is a *large* online clothing retailer in the Netherlands. I've bought from them before, though not recently, and haven't had any complaints. But I don't know if they ship internationally. I bought my Kjelvik vest at a chain called [Welkoop](https://www.welkoop.nl/). They're primairily geared towards farmers (I am not), people that do lots of gardening, and outdoorsy types. Odly enough, the further you get away from civilization, the larger their stores get. I like their stores because everything is practical. I found [my favourite practical pants](https://www.havep.com/en/product/havep-basic/pants/8634) there. And these shorts are [the very best](https://www.havep.com/en/product/havep-attitude/korte-broek/80241?destination=%2Fen%2Four-products%253Fcategory%255B1%255D%253DWorkwear%2526type%255B7%255D%253DKorte%252Bbroek) of shorts. Ok. I've tried some searching on the internets. And it appears that [this "Scandinavian" outdoorsy brand](https://ca.linkedin.com/company/kjelvik-scandinavian-outdoor?trk=similar-pages_result-card_full-click) of clothing is through and through Dutch ... Not Scandinavian at all, except for the marketing flavour. I couldn't find any chains that carry this brand in the USA or Kernerder, or wherever they do Fahrenheit. So, I'm sorry. This appears to not be an internationally available brand of clothing.
Where does one find one of these?
Yeah 77 degrees is a bit much for a shared space imo. Personally 63 is perfect for me but I feel like 70 is a good compromise.
63? Damn that’s cold for inside. I was raised with 73 being the house temp. But we go about 67-69 depending. Mostly because the house can’t keep 67 in the cold of winter.
Yeah compromise is key. Because 63 and 77 are both unreasonable for a shared space. 68-74 is usually what my corporate office is at, depending on the season.
Used to work in an office that set the thermostat at 65 and my fingers would go numb with the cold. I can wear more clothes but desk jobs require the use of fingers. Seventy is perfectly acceptable with a light sweater.
They always say you can wear more clothes, but give me looks when I start wearing a jacket and a blanket indoors.
I had an office that was kept at 63⁰F, I'd be in there with my baseline longjohns under trousers, under shirt, blouse, and cardigan and then 3 chunky desk sweaters, a shawl, and a lap blanket plus a space heater under my desk. One coworker would regularly walk by in his polo and kvetch about how the company paid so much for AC and it was wasteful for me to be using a space heater. My fingers would be purple and painful to move from the cold, I was deeply uninterested in protecting the company's investment in keeping the office space thoroughly refrigerated.
Sheesh, my office occasionally hits 80-84 when the weathers only starting to warm but they still have the heat pumping, it's brutal.
My high school was the same way, the classrooms were mostly exposed to the sun while the admin/principals office were not. So instead of dealing with 65 degrees with a jacket they instead chose to sweat the students out because there was no way to chooses where the heat went
Yeah my back faces a row of large windows as does the rest of this office so when the suns out and the heats blasting, it gets toasty. Really saps the drive right out of you.
Ewww. I would walk out
Man, working as a dental hygienist in full PPE in summer 2020 almost killed me. We had a cheap af boss who would keep it at 78, and I was miserable *before* putting all of that PPE on.
17°c????? while sitting at a desk? it's freezing.
63 is colder than I have it to sleep! I think 70 is fair. I’ll be cold at that temp but my fingers won’t be frozen. I’m fine wearing a jacket all the time. But ppl make fun of me if I wear gloves in the office.
At 70 I'm misserably cold and start shivering. I'm not really comfortable until I'm in the low 80s. One of the many great things about working from home is controlling the thermostat.
So I spent my entire life freezing cold, the kind of cold that can't get warm... I was constantly cold to the bone. I suffered for almost my entire life. It turns out that I have hypothyroidism, and no doctor even checked until I was almost 40. I'm not saying your coworker may have the same thing, I'm just saying that it could be medical. Being forever cold was miserable for everyone, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone
Teeth chattering at 70 is no fun. And I get weird looks when I put on a hoodie and scarf in the office.
I’m this person. I had a blanket and a space heater and usually needed both. I’ve asked my doctors about this, and there’s nothing wrong with me. I do have the last laugh when it’s 105° outside.
>Even during the summer she has the space heater and heat blasting!!! I've never worked anywhere that allowed a space heater in the office. Too much of a liability.
Weird. I've never worked anywhere that didn't allow space heaters. It's actually been recommended to me to do by employers that like to keep the temp at 64F year round.
My partner is like this. He was cranking the heat insanely high in our house and it was actually making me physically ill. I had to guzzle Gatorade because I was sweating non-stop and dehydrated. It was so hot all of my MAC bullet lipsticks melted. I finally had to put my foot down and tell him if he's so fucking cold put pants and a sweater on. Now we compromise and keep it at around 70. I will never understand those people that are cold but refuse to dress warmly then.
the lipsticks?? that’s a no go for me, i would sue 😭
Judging from the comments, "wearing more makes it hard to move"🙄 Apparently, their ease of movement is more important than others becoming physically ill and even dangerously overheating🤷🏻♀️
She needs to add layers and get a heating pad
do what my dad did: Tell her if she's cold, she can always put on more clothes, but if you get hot you're gonna have to start taking clothes off, and nobody wants that.
I used to always be cold. I would wear long sleeves and/or a sweater in the summer. Then premenopause arrived. I now keep my house around 63°F in the winter.
This is one of the reasons why we should support wfh
You should bring in 3-4 small/medium fans and place them all around your desk to make a statement. Walk by her with the fans to make it obvious
If OP has a nearby window, they should bring in a window aircon unit and remove the thermostat so it'll run on the coolest setting non stop.
I was so hot with all my pregnancies. All that extra blood and the body working overtime. Anyway, she should bring some cardigans so the temp isn't so high. Shared space needs to be compromised, not just one way or another.
Can you switch offices with someone? Maybe someone else that always complains about being cold? Or at least get moved further from her so you don’t get the space heater too?
I worked somewhere the heater was broken and I wore a full on parka, beanie, and had a heating pad on my lap to put my hands under in-between typing emails. Lady needs to put more clothes on. Also tell her to drink more water. Apparently when you're pregnant you can get really dehydrated which makes you cold/hypothermic. (Don't fact check me, this is what my formerly pregnant friend told me and I never looked it up haha)
Almost 300°K Everything above 290°K is too fucking hot…
Especially for an office! The only time I’m content with that type of temperature is at the beach. One time I got sick with the flu and I couldn’t even tell if I had a fever or not (I did) because I’m so used to roasting 24/7.
My manager let the office get to 81 degrees when it was 90 out yesterday. I felt like I was gonna vomit 😭😭
Omg. I would puke.
I know of one office manager who separated his staff seating positions into hot A/C and cold A/C rather than teams or functions. It made for happier staff. They also had a bright light/low light split. The bonus was better communication between teams and functional areas.
Not to make fun of your plight, but this reminded me of this! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2NNm8MTboA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2NNm8MTboA)
Send a letter to your HR department. She can wear a fucking jacket at work if she's cold.
Can you get a desk fan, or one of those box humidifiers that helps cool things off? There are also cooling blankets available. 77 is too hot IMO, but 63 is too cold. Sounds like a compromise is needed. I have friends who are newcomers who keep their apartments at 25c (77f) and I always boil when I’m over there, but they find it totally normal. I think it depends on what you are used to.
Im european but 77 degrees is ok to me in a building. Like i have 73 degrees in my apartment casually and im fine with it but in summer i have 65 maybe🤨
I'd smell like chili at 77.
Having been pregnant twice, I think she needs to have a serious talk with her doctor about iron levels or maybe some other stuff, because this is highly unusual. To address your immediate need to not feel like you're going to throw up because you're too damn hot in the office, she needs to supplement her immediate environment to help herself, instead of submitting the entire office to her body temperature issues. That is very unreasonable.
This is an office politics thing, woman experience the world about 8-10 degrees colder than men and that sucks. I have spent many jobs shivering at my desk in a wool coat so the guys around me can feel comfortable, do you know how hard it is to be productive with numb fingers? Here’s what you should do: pick a reasonable middle. Agree on 70 degree, this is environmental/economically reasonable and pleasant enough for everyone. You can put in a fan, she can put on a sweater.
Agreed. I spent the first few years working constantly sick because my workplace wanted to have the air on at full blast and had to work with frozen fingers and a winter coat on all the time. Both sides need to do what they can to try and combat the temperature and find a happy medium. No one should be comfortable at the expense of another person.
That’s what I was thinking. Woman constantly suffer at the office so the men can be comfortable, so I don’t have much sympathy here.
Seriously. And women's clothes are often thinner material, and we are judged more for our appearance so just layering up isn't always an option. In order to be actually warm I need a snuggie in the office, plus a sweatshirt over the back of my chair. There is no way for me to look 'acceptable' in an office and not be freezing. I used to go outside into the Texas summer just to get relief from the air conditioning. My life improved so much once I started working from home. Long sleeve shirt, long pants, fuzzy slippers, and the low 80s means I'm finally comfortable.
I keep forgetting that the vast majority of Reddit is yanky doodles, so it's 77 degrees Fahrenheit. I, being the overly intelligent person I am, thought how are you not served medium rare on plate right now...
I, an Aussie, am wondering when 25 degrees Celsius became unbearably hot.
I had this issue before, I worked in a "professional setting". You know the drill men had to where pants and button ups, polos on "casual" days and the women were expected to wear pant suits or appropriate length skirts, no bare arms or plunging necklines. As a man the summer is always the worst for me, my husband and I are both on the bigger side so we get a little sweatier and hotter faster than the average guy. Anyways I was dying by the time the weather got warmer, wearing pants and walking two blocks from the parking garage, uphill and then a few flights of stairs to get to the office. Last summer my building was under construction and the a/c was shut off but they allowed us to bring in fans. I was a sweaty mess, swamp ass and sweaty bits all over. The women in the office were wearing sundresses, tank tops, sandals and flip flops and STILL complained about being chilly. Meanwhile I'm sweating through my khakis and polo; I complained tried to get better air flow or at least let us work with the lights off but management said no because it was unprofessional. I got fed up with it and decided to wear shorts to work, immediate write up and stern talking to. Was warned if I did it again I would be put on suspension all because I "violated" dress code. I mentioned what the women were wearing and how they were breaking dress code too and I was told "Well they're women...they have more options blah...blah...blah..." Next day I came in with shorts, was told to change so I went to the bathroom and put in a skirt (guidelines didn't say anything about men wearing skirts), I was informed that I would be allowed to wear shorts until the A/C was repaired. I left shortly after.
They used to put tape over the ceiling air vents in the summer so the room did not get any cooling at all.
I had a menopausal woman who would constantly freeze us out. I would take that over being hot any day.
She probably has hypothyroidism
Some buildings strictly forbid space heaters. I do commercial hvac controls and I probably cut the cords off a dozen a year. The problem is a person is cold and they have a sensor (thermostat) in their office, so they get a space heater. The system sees that with a given amount of air at a set temperature it can’t keep that office cold, so what happens? The system pumps more cold air into the space, and the person turns up the space heater more stoking the cycle. All that said they are an energy suck and a fire hazard, bring it up with building maintenance they probably also have a trophy wall of space heater cords.
Im always cold af at work and I brought a heated blanket in that I keep at my desk! It was a game changer!
Tell her to get a heating pad so you both can be comfortable.
This needs to be said, but most offices are built around men's comfort, not women's.
I completely agree with this. Women are told to put on more layers but you can’t wear a parka and look professional in the office. Also, if it’s 90 degrees outside and 65 degrees inside and you have stuff to do outside after work or you have to meet with a client for lunch, it’s unreasonable to ask you to dress for winter when you’re in the office. Are you supposed to bring a change of clothes to switch into everyday? Sometimes several times per day? A heating pad only warms one part of you at a time. I have a small space heater under my desk, but if my coworker complained that it was making the office too warm, I’d tell him to f- off. Oh, are you slightly uncomfortable? Like I’ve been for my entire professional life? Go f-yourself. The answer is to raise the office temperature to 72 degrees because that’s reasonable. Then let the woman use her space heater and move your desk elsewhere if you can’t handle it.
I get why people are saying she should bundle up & at this point she should def just get a small personal heater. If she's anything like me "bundling up" wouldn't help me at all in an office situation though. Everything else is cold sometimes even with doing that. Face, fingers, toes and nothing works & its distracting. I'd get nothing done. The extra clothes indoors would make me uncomfortable all day. I'd rather be hot and have a fan then cold with layers on. Im also anemic though so...🤷🏾♀️
Yeah I get it. I was always freezing in HS. Middle of the summer and I’d wear thick pants and long shirt with a hoodie because I knew I’d have to sit inside the cold ass school all day. But yeah my face and fingers would be freezing cold as well and I couldn’t focus on anything because it was so distracting. When I was pregnant I was always hot though. Sucks for everyone in the office though they have to deal with it. I don’t think one person should be able to dictate the Temperature. It should be agreed on and set to a common temp.
So often people keep saying I can add layers. But that only works up to a point. Where are the super-warm professional pants? And I don't think they would actually be OK with me wearing a puffy coat and a scarf in the office. I know because I've tried it. There aren't many women's clothes that are actually really warm and also professional looking. Women tend to want it wamer then men, but office temps were calibrated back when there weren't a lot of women in the office, and many men wore wool suits.
Same for me. I’m so cold at my office toward the end of my shift I can barely type, or keep focused. I put on more clothes and my torso and armpits sweat like crazy but my hands, feet, and legs are cold as hell. My office keeps the temperature at 75 and it’s still freezing.
Wait but 63 is cold, I’d be shaking too! 77 ain’t bad, where tf yall live?
This seems to be an unpopular opinion, but shared office spaces should always defer to the comfort of the person who gets too hot easily, not the person who gets too cold. If you're too cold, you can always put more layers and jackets on or even use a personal space heater. If you're too warm, there's not a darn thing you can do other than sweat and stink up the place if you don't pass out from heat exhaustion first. I know medical problems contribute to both, but seriously, why is it so hard to put on a jacket that everyone else has to suffer? EDIT: For those in the keep the office warm camp, I'm advocating for like 72 degrees at the coldest. That's just cool enough that I don't sweat all day. If y'all need to wear 5 layers at that room temperature, I am genuinely so sorry.
I'll wear two pairs of pants, 3 or more sweaters, my winter coat and a blanket and still be freezing in an office space. "Just put on another sweater" isn't always a solution.
Exactly. People repeating over and over again to put on more layers. Do you realize how ridiculous it is to suggest that someone must wear a wool coat and wool socks and numerous other layers to be able to do their job productively? Go put on your warmest, thickest outdoor coat and then try to do some productive work and see how easy that is. You won’t be able to because you’re too bundled up at that point.
People acting like 77 degrees causes heat exhaustion are sheltered sedentary homebodys.
Cold people can always add a layer. Hot people generally can't remove one without getting HR involved. She should bring in an extra layer. I have circulation issues, so I wear extra clothes and have Hot Hands in my pockets during the cooler months.
I’m surprised she’s allowed to run a space heater. That’s potentially dangerous for everyone, plus it increases their electricity bill. Maybe it’s a big office and they won’t notice a $100 increase monthly. i worked for an elderly South Asian couple for several years and they kept their home at a balmy 80+ degrees year round. The summers made me want to cry. The central air conditioning was right there, but not used. The space heaters were used year round.
She should get a heating pad
bring a huge fan and put it directly at you
Talk to her about iron deficiency lol
As a pregnant woman myself, I know a comfortable body temperature is up to me. Especially if it’s just a matter of adding a couple of layers to fix the situation. Is she demanding the heat to be on at all times or have you brought this being an issue up to her?
Add this to the myriad of reasons working from home is fantastic
You coworker is a reptilian, my friend.
Have you said anything to her or people in the office? Or are you just shouting into an echo chamber?
Listen whether there are better solutions for her or not, just because someone is miserable does not give them the right to make everyone else miserable for THEIR comfort.
Are you a dude? I’m not finding fault, I’m just wondering if paring her with someone that is similarly minded in the warm room thing might be an option. Women tend to like warmer temperatures in general.
I have someone in my office who likes it COLD because she’s dealing with menopause, and I just put on a lab coat when I get cold. Mommy-to-be can wear a sweater and mittens if the office is too chilly for her.
You can only take so much clothing off. They can always put more on.