Hacker News Reader

Comment by dnbgfher | Hacker News Reader

Meanwhile you have people like me. I'm are already uncomfortably hot no matter how I'm dressed (or not) at 78. Even in shorts and a tshirt, most offices are warmer than I'd prefer.

This may be my own biases at play here, but it's really not that hard to warm up by dressing warmer. You don't have that option for cooling down unless you want to wear a vest full of icepacks or something. If the goal is to maximize comfort, it seems like the thermostat should be set lower rather than higher.

View on HN

> it's really not that hard to warm up by dressing warmer

I cannot use my keyboard while wearing winter gloves, so there are limits. Sadly, I have tried.

There are fingerless gloves that can help. Ultimately for warm hands in cold conditions you need to maintain a reasonable core body temperature. Otherwise your extremities will be cold no matter what you do. That is harder to regulate if you are just sitting.

Don't use winter gloves, get a pair of silk gloves. They're warm and super thin

Or we can simply ignore the vocal minority that demands temperatures below 78F/25C, and thus maximize subjective comfort. They are fucked anyway, they need to visit the outside world to get to work.

Please don't post flamewar comments to Hacker News. We're trying for better than that here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I don't think 78 is a temperature that only a vocal minority is uncomfortable at? It's not hard for people to start sweating at that temperature with even mild effort and most people don't like having sweat stains or sweaty armpits at work

Most cars have air conditioning (a lot of trains do too), and most people commute well before and after the hottest part of the day. If your office is a sauna for three months and you won't fix it, everyone who isn't unemployable will probably quit.

funny, here in Germany many offices and most homes don't have AC. Granted it's usually not that hot during the summer, but right now it has been around 85 since April and a lot of people are suffering at work, but nobody would quit because of that.

They would if the only difference with a competitor was the presence of ac. Assuming all other variables are essentially equal.

if no other companies they could go work at have ac either... what would be the point of quitting? people generally don't quit out of protest to just... do nothing, but they'd quit to go work someplace else.

who would seriously just switch jobs because of AC ?

All other conditions equal, I’d say a lot of people.

That’s the same as asking, “Who would seriously just switch jobs because of more money?”

It’s a quality of living thing. If you don’t loose anything but can gain something, why not do it?

I'm not sure why you wouldn't. You're spending a significant chunk of your time at the office. If you are uncomfortable all of that time it's a significant issue.

I mean if your job only allowed you to sit on a small unpadded stool, wouldn't that motivate you to find a new job?

It is plenty hot enough in summer in Germany to warrant AC.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com