It’s rarely commented upon, but one of the great benefits of hybrid working (for those of us lucky enough to be able to work from home a few days a week) is that you don’t have to go outside when it’s horrendously, shockingly freezing.
The past few days have been so polar that Personnel Today has received its first “what to do if it’s cold” email of winter, a month earlier than normal. These emails, often from PR firms representing boiler companies or insulation suppliers, are usually reserved for that bleak period early in the New Year when not only is it boneshakingly cold but we are living in perpetual gloom and are unable to clearly discern day and night.
According to one such email received today “there has been a huge 385% increase in online searches for ‘legal minimum office temperature’.”
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But what is odd about this “huge” figure is that surely people have heard by now that there is no law for minimum or maximum working temperatures. (How many times have we run articles on this? Ed.) Perhaps we need to run research on web searches for “amnesia” as well as “hypothermia”.
So let’s have an encore: the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 guidelines say that the minimum temperature in a workplace should usually be at least 16C or 13C if much of the work involves rigorous physical effort. These standards are designed to ensure a reasonable level of comfort without the need for special clothing.”
The email, from a heating supplier, adds cosily: “So, as the temperatures drop and snow seems just around the corner, remember to take all the necessary steps to ensure your employees are in a comfortably warm environment. It’s not just about keeping them safe, it’s about keeping them happy and productive too.”
At Personnel Today we feel employees need toughening up. Offices have windows and roofs don’t they? Keeping staff warm is surely mollycoddling them. How are they expected to face the commute home, the freezing wait on the station platform, if they’ve been kept warm, “safe, happy and productive” all day?
What are the web search figures for “acclimatisation”? Perhaps the trend for wearing pyjamas at work may be taking a hit. No bad thing.
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