Monday, August 3, 2015

Chilly at work?... blame men

"Ms. Mahannah, 24, who wrote 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.”"


Right. It happens every summer: Offices turn on the air-conditioning, and women freeze into Popsicles.

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.

15 comments:

chickelit said...

Now here's something white males can be blamed for.

Leland said...

I don't know about the office, but within the family, my mother-in-law is known for keeping the thermostat at arctic levels.

Methadras said...

Maybe it's because of the ice that already runs through their veins.

AllenS said...

Isn't it because of all of the computers? Where I used to work, if you went into a "computer room" it was a lot colder than the press room. A lot.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Computers do run better at cooler temperatures.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

What I find puzzling? again... is that the NYT is saying men and women are different.

How are they getting away with that?

Marc in Eugene said...

For Heaven's sake; 'an icy White Walker'-- people who live in certain enclaves within the US these days could just as easily be on a reservation somewhere, kept on it by their detachment from the vicissitudes of reality. A reservation of the mind; what's her name, Pauline Kael Land. Gosh.

Wonder why Althouse went with the Post AC article instead of the Times AC article? not that I'll read them to investigate.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

At my sisters house, here where I live in Florida, the thermostat is in my room.

I've never been able to consistently guess her temperature comfort.

Some days my setting is cold, some days is warm.

edutcher said...

There is a remedy.

Find a man.

Crawl in under him.

Repeat as needed.

Amartel said...

I remember stories early on about Obama cranking the heat in the White House. Guess that makes him a GIRL. Whatever. This stupid article is designed to get people to insult each other based on whatever sex category (pick six or Grab Bag) they feel needs a slap. Okay, it's designed to support a ridiculous claim of institutional discrimination against women and a stealth sub-claim of the energy ineffiency of air conditioning. Which in turn will trigger backlash claims about women not knowing how to work the thermostat or wearing inappropriate clothing to work when they should have brought a parka. If someone you trust enough to employ has a complaint about basic working conditions my advice is to listen to them and try to do something about it. My assistant used to complain occasionally about the cold in our office and I didn't give it too much thought until I sat in her chair one day and realized it was directly under an AC vent and actually was quite cold and breezy. Unnecessarily unpleasant! I moved the desk and redirected the vent and asked the building manager to turn down the AC a couple of notches. Now we're all good but I wished I'd done something sooner.

KCFleming said...

No matter what the room temp, medical conference attendees can be expected to complain about it being too high, too low, etc.

I figure that humans never stop complaining, so the nature of complaint is key.
If it's "I hate my life and I'm dying," well, that's a big deal, a higher order complaint.

Cold rooms?
Times are good.

This one just has the usual feminist she-woman man-hater kibble for the dumb Althouse NYTimes NPR set.
If you're reading it, it's for you.

windbag said...

These same women who complain about being cold will complain when a gentleman offers to warm them up. Just can't please 'em.

Methadras said...

Frankly, this article is click bait douchebaggery and someone should get on twitter (me) and harass this idiot woman child for her weakness. Now that would be micro-aggression.

Synova said...

Air conditioners are set according to a formula? I thought someone walked over to the wall and if they were warm, moved the little lever toward freezing.

I'm probably the one who's been freezing everyone at work. For whatever reason my little corner is hot so I turn down the temps while everyone downstairs are in sweaters.

Some Seppo said...

Men just like it a bit more nipply indoors than women do.