Mental Health Thread #4 -- Fall/Winter

[ElleMD]

Oh, I am not handling it well at all. I am always cold. Right now I just don't have a lot of other options. Hoping they fix it soon. Also ordered a space heater that supposedly will not overload the circuits.

 

[Betty3]

Oh - just start a fire in your waste basket ...... or maybe not!

 

[lda01]

OOOooooooo! a space heater, wait until the safety committee hears about that!

After having been in the workforce nearly half a century I can say that I've never worked in a building where the a/c-heat was evenly distributed except my home-office. (and that's only if my wife quits messing with the thermostat)
One time while doing some planning for an office remodel I was looking a original blueprints for the building when it was built. Of course the work areas were set up quite differently back then, and it had been remodeled several times since. However, the HVAC hadn't changed since the building was built. Unless you're working in a fairly new building the chances are that the environmental systems have nothing to do with your current floorplan. The result is hot/cold spots. Then there's the "people factor"...don't get me started.

 

[ElleMD]

The building is fairly new but the area where my office is was recently reconfigured from open space to many offices. My new space heater is one of those flat panel things that doesn't hae an open heating element. It is the approved model from the EHS office so all is well.

 

[lda01]

Any time you break a large open space up into smaller ones, it's going to require more HVAC even if the system is reconfigured to deliver air to each office. The places I've worked that did permit space heaters required a timer be used on it to eliminate the possibility of it being left on overnight inadvertently. If the heater you're using is tripping the breaker, you're overloading the circuit, and that carries the hazard of the breaker not tripping soon enough to prevent a fire. (they do wear out and stop functioning) If your heater has a High/Low setting I'd use the only the low. Or check amperage rating on your heater and buy a lower amperage one that won't trip the breaker.

The alternative is Betty's suggestion, which I have contemplated when the thermometer in my office reads 50 degrees like it did this morning.

 

[ElleMD]

Luckily my new heater isn't tripping the breaker, just the one I had brought in from home. When it is 30 degrees out and barely 60 in, Betty's suggestion almost became reality. I hate being cold. I am ready for summer though I also am not a huge fan of AC. I'm very energy efficient in the summer which makes up for my winters.

 

[ferretrick]

The geniuses that wired our building put about 4 offices AND the kitchen/break area on one circuit. Our space heaters would be fine until lunch time when someone used the microwave and then it would blow the breaker every time.

 

[Betty3]

The alternative is Betty's suggestion, which I have contemplated when the thermometer in my office reads 50 degrees like it did this morning.

50! I would be wearing my coat or wrapping myself in a blanket. The AC/heating system where I worked worked ok - it was just they had it adjusted where the A/C was too cold for me in the summer & the heat not warm enough for me in the winter. Everyone complained about the restrooms being really cold. I don't think they wanted anyone to stay in there too long.

 

[lda01]

We have no HVAC in the men's room. We refer it as our Alaskan outhouse at this time of year.
Our Admin. offices are on a long hallway. My end of the hall gets most of whatever is coming out of the vents, while the folks down in accounting get very little. This worked fine until they managed to get the thermostat moved the their end of the hall, so the offices at my end are now like meat lockers in the summer and saunas in the winter. The folks in the middle seem pretty happy.

 

[cynthiag]

The area of our building my office is in was remodeled less than 10 years ago and we've always had issues with the heating/cooling. I can stand under the vents in the ceiling of my office and the air coming in there is freezing cold, but when I step outside my office the vents there are pouring out hot air. There's apparently just no way to get the hot and cold air to combine to make plain old warm air! They fiddled with it a little bit when we first moved in but in the end I think they decided we'd just have to live with it.

 

[cbg]

Some of you from the old AHI board will remember the days when I worked for a biotech firm. The heating and cooling systems in our building had been specifically requested by a prior tenant - I never did find out what they did that they wanted these particular settings. However, in some offices you could hang meat, and in others you could grow orchids. I never did understand why we didn't have a perpetual little thunderstorm going on outside Research and Development where the two fronts met. It was not uncommon to hear a conversation such as, "If you need me, I'll be down in Mary's office" "Why, is there a problem with the labs?" "No, I just need to warm up"

 

[Betty3]

I guess when you work in a large bldg. or a fairly large bldg., it is hard to get the temp. the same everywhere & to also please everyone - some people complain they are hot & some complain they are cold & the temp. is the same right where they are. However; I didn't care about everyone - just myself. (just kidding) I'm retired now & set the temperature where I want it at home.

 

[ElleMD]

I used to work in a highrise office building where the outer walls were basically all glass. The side with Southern exposure was always warm in the afternoons while the Northern side was freezing cold. Guess where I was at? Then there was the week when the cooling elements went out in the server room and the only temporary solution was to keep the entire office cold enough to prevent the servers from overheating. Pretty much the entire office took a field trip across the road to the mall to buy sweaters, blankets, gloves and other assorted warm weather gear. It was a warm day out so I'm sure more than a few sales clerks wondered why there was a run on winter gear. We took elevator breaks to warm up as well.

 

[Betty3]

I have a friend who delivers mail from house to house (lady friend). I could never do it.

 

[cynthiag]

It's funny that our latest discussion has been about the temperature in our office buildings...this morning when I got to work I found out the furnace isn't working in this end of the building. It's only about 25 degrees outside so it's pretty chilly in here. My assistant and I were going to put up the department Christmas tree this afternoon but I think we're going to do it this morning just to have some physical activity to keep us warmer until the furnace is running right again!

 

[cynthiag]

So, we got out our Christmas tree and all the department decorations but found out that the tree stand in the box with the tree isn't the right one, so the tree wobbled really badly. My assistant and I went out to buy a new stand, had to go to two different stores to find one, and when we got it back here and tried to put it together, we found out it was broken! She took it back to trade it in for another one, and hopefully they'll let her look at the new one right there in the store to make sure it's okay. We are determined to get this stupid tree put up today, but right now I'm feeling very bah-humbuggish!

 

[Betty3]

Just think of the sense of accomplishment you will feel when you finally get it up. (or did you finally get it up by now)?

 

[cynthiag]

Just think of the sense of accomplishment you will feel when you finally get it up. (or did you finally get it up by now)?

My assistant came back with a stand that worked, and I put it in the stand and got the lights plugged in, then I turned it over to the accounting staff to finish decorating - there are more of them than there are of us HR people and they got it finished in pretty much no time at all and it looks really pretty. I'm feeling considerably less Scrooge-y now since I just came into my office and went back to work while they decorated the tree!

I'm taking my youngest granddaughter to watch her 8-year-old sister perform in The Nutcracker ballet tonight so I need to make sure my holiday spirit is firmly in place before then. Of course, watching her watch the ballet will go a long way toward that...I love seeing all the holiday stuff that I've done for years again through the eyes of the little ones.

 

[Betty3]

This is one of the times of the year when I wished I had little ones in the family.

 

[ferretrick]

I work for a small HVAC wholesaler/distributorship. I'm the Office Manager/Accountant. I remember the time two of our three A/C units failed at the same time. My boss comes in my office hollering about he just doesn't understand how they could both go out at the same time and looking at me like I should have an answer. Uh, dude? You sell this stuff FOR A LIVING. I just keep the books...