by Brianna Crandall — January 4, 2016—The weather outside may be frightfully bizarre this winter, but the temperatures inside can be just as difficult for many to adjust to. According to a new survey from international human capital solutions provider CareerBuilder, 23% of employees say their office is too cold, while 25% are too hot.
Office temperature is not just a source of discomfort, however; it can also be a source of conflict. One in five workers (20%) have argued with a coworker about office temperature, and 18% have secretly changed the temperature during the winter.
Drilled down by gender, survey findings indicate women feel temperature differently in workplaces from men. Some 13% of men say they are too cold, and 28% too hot; while 31% of women are too cold, 22% too hot.
Rosemary Haefner, chief human resource officer at CareerBuilder, says,
It’s impossible to change the thermostat to something that pleases everybody. But what you can do is look at what employees want and need to be productive, and accommodate where you can.
IT gets it just right
Broken down by industry, information technology (IT) reports the most comfortable employees:
| Health Care | Retail | Sales | Leisure & Hospitality | IT | Manufac-turing | Financial Services | |
| Too cold | 27% | 14% | 26% | 20% | 19% | 17% | 32% |
| Too hot | 22% | 33% | 27% | 32% | 11% | 40% | 11% |
| Just right | 51% | 53% | 46% | 48% | 70% | 43% | 57% |
Rising temperatures, lower productivity
According to this survey, the temperature of an office space can have a significant impact on the performance of the workforce and their productivity. More than half of employees (53%) said sitting in an office that is too cold has a negative impact on their productivity, while 71% said the same for a warm environment. Women are more likely than men to be negatively affected by both too cold and too warm environments — 58% are affected by cold (vs. 47% of men) and 74% by hot environments (vs. 68% for men).
To keep warm during the cold winter months, employees are taking action by:
- Dressing in layers: 44%
- Drinking hot beverages: 36%
- Wearing a jacket all day: 31%
- Wearing a heavy sweater: 27%
- Using a space heater: 15%
- Using a blanket: 7%
How to call a truce on office temperatures
Differing opinions on an ideal office temperatures can send tempers running hot. Haefner offers employers and facilities managers a few tips for keeping the peace:
- Try to agree on the degrees: Ask employees to agree on a temperature setting that will be acceptable to everyone. Let workers know you will check for a few days and settings will be tweaked until a happy medium is found.
- Make special arrangements: Some employees, such as those who sit under a vent, may need special provisions, such as space heaters or cooling fans. Consider accommodating them, but make sure safety rules are set first.
- Check insulation: Make sure windows are correctly sealed to keep warm air in during the winter and block heat in the summertime.
Outside workers also face temperature challenges
Those working in cubicles and offices are of course not the only ones affected by temperatures at work. Although only 10% of respondents work outdoors, a quarter of them have had a medical issue tied to extreme temperatures in their working environments. These include:
- Heat exhaustion: 13%
- Severely dehydrated: 9%
- Badly sunburned: 7%
- Heat stroke: 3%
- Hypothermia: 2%
- Frost bite: 1%
The national survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder from August 12 to September 2, 2015, and included a representative sample of 3,321 full-time workers across industries and company sizes.
