As reported Monday in the journal Nature of Climate Change, the thermostats in most office buildings are set for the comfort of men, specifically one who is 40 year old and weighs 140 pounds.
The settings were based on a formula called “Fanger’s thermal comfort equation.” It was devised half a century ago, back in the “Mad Men” days when most office workers were men who smoked and took three-martini lunches, while just about the only females were “girls” who took dictation.
I have no idea who Fanger was, but I’m guessing he was a man.
Because what the formula ignored was the biological reality that men and women march to the beat of different thermostats; women tend to be smaller and have more body fat, with lower metabolic rates than men, which means they generate less body heat.
“Many men think that women are just nagging,” a scientist explained in a New York Times article. “But it’s because of their physiology.”
That certainly isn’t hot news to anyone who ever has shared a domicile with a person of the opposite gender. In virtually every relationship, when he’s too hot, she’s too cold. When she’s too hot, he’s too cold.
On summer days when my nose hairs have frozen together, my wife will crank the AC five degrees lower. On winter days when I think the temperature in our condo already is hot enough to kill a cactus, she’ll jack it up even higher. Adjusting the thermostat is a full-time job for her. Not only have I never adjusted the thermostat in our home, I’m not even sure where it’s located.
Exactly how to deal with temperature disparity in the workplace, now that Don Draper has retired and there as many women in cubicles as there are men, isn’t clear. On summer days, when men are reporting to work in short-sleeved shirts, some women say they’re dealing with it by showing up wearing sweatshirts, wrapping themselves in blankets or drinking lots of hot coffee to ward off the office chill.
As an alternative, one of the researchers has suggested that thermostats could be set higher and men could adjust by taking off a layer of clothing or two.
But I’m not sure how many offices are ready for the sight of middle-aged guys walking around the office in their boxers and black socks.
My guess is that most women would just as soon throw on another sweater.
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