3 ms·

I'd say environmental factors such as being so freaking hot that you are sweating or so freaking cold you have to bring in a heater to counteract the AC are pre

by bcheung 10y ago

I'd say environmental factors such as being so freaking hot that you are sweating or so freaking cold you have to bring in a heater to counteract the AC are pretty distracting as well. And in terms of productivity, not having enough ventilation so that the air builds up CO2 makes people really tired and unproductive.

r00fus 10y ago
That last sentence struck a chord with me - I remember (during my traveling) being onsite for an "ERP implementation warehouse" for a major company with hundreds of workers and inadequate ventilation - place seemed like hell and I felt sleepy the entire time I was onsite. Glad when that week was over. Maybe I'm just sensitive, but when "life support" is off in an office (e.g. later in the day or early in the morning where HVAC is turned down), I take that as a cue to not be present. I can always work from home with VPN if needed.
joesmo 10y ago
Totally! I once quit a job because the average temperature in the office was 85F in winter (also really shitty spaghetti code)! Unfortunately, not before I got incredibly sick. When I complained, they said they could do nothing about it because other people were freezing. In the Bay Area, on the other hand, I had a job in a similar place that was always freezing, even when it was warm outside. That was actually not as bad, but still annoying to have to wear a heavy winter coat indoors all the time. The point is, big giant spaces / warehouses are not offices and using them as such without proper comforts will make your employees hate you. If it's an open office on top of that, they'll hate you twice as much because I've never met a single person who prefers open offices for themselves.
- theandrewbailey 10y ago
  Sometime at a previous job, the A/C failed in the server closet. Since the rest of the office was so chilly, the door was propped open, and stayed that way at least until I left. For the first time, the temperature was sometimes bearable. I wonder if that episode killed some of those geriatric servers; this was 2012 and there were several Pentium 3 Xeons running Win 2K Server in there. A while after that, building management sent around a survey. It included a table that asked 'how is the temperature in...' and various parts of the building. I put 'too cold' for everything. I bet everyone else did too, because two weeks later, they installed a thermostat in the office, and things were comfortable enough without a jacket.
TeMPOraL 10y ago
Seconding. I've previously worked in places where I would fight my sleepiness for the whole day because ventilation was poor. I'm somewhat more sensitive to that than average, judging by the fact I was the only one with this problem. Environmental factors are annoying, too. I prefer it colder than most people, so I sometimes will sit in a t-shirt while my cow-orkers complain it's too cold...
- antisthenes 10y ago
  Poor ventilation + heat is my personal hell. I can 'sit' for 8 hours at my desk and accomplish literally nothing in those conditions.

by bcheung 10y ago

r00fus 10y ago

That last sentence struck a chord with me - I remember (during my traveling) being onsite for an "ERP implementation warehouse" for a major company with hundreds of workers and inadequate ventilation - place seemed like hell and I felt sleepy the entire time I was onsite. Glad when that week was over. Maybe I'm just sensitive, but when "life support" is off in an office (e.g. later in the day or early in the morning where HVAC is turned down), I take that as a cue to not be present. I can always work from home with VPN if needed.

joesmo 10y ago

Totally! I once quit a job because the average temperature in the office was 85F in winter (also really shitty spaghetti code)! Unfortunately, not before I got incredibly sick. When I complained, they said they could do nothing about it because other people were freezing. In the Bay Area, on the other hand, I had a job in a similar place that was always freezing, even when it was warm outside. That was actually not as bad, but still annoying to have to wear a heavy winter coat indoors all the time. The point is, big giant spaces / warehouses are not offices and using them as such without proper comforts will make your employees hate you. If it's an open office on top of that, they'll hate you twice as much because I've never met a single person who prefers open offices for themselves.

theandrewbailey 10y ago
Sometime at a previous job, the A/C failed in the server closet. Since the rest of the office was so chilly, the door was propped open, and stayed that way at least until I left. For the first time, the temperature was sometimes bearable. I wonder if that episode killed some of those geriatric servers; this was 2012 and there were several Pentium 3 Xeons running Win 2K Server in there. A while after that, building management sent around a survey. It included a table that asked 'how is the temperature in...' and various parts of the building. I put 'too cold' for everything. I bet everyone else did too, because two weeks later, they installed a thermostat in the office, and things were comfortable enough without a jacket.

TeMPOraL 10y ago

Seconding. I've previously worked in places where I would fight my sleepiness for the whole day because ventilation was poor. I'm somewhat more sensitive to that than average, judging by the fact I was the only one with this problem. Environmental factors are annoying, too. I prefer it colder than most people, so I sometimes will sit in a t-shirt while my cow-orkers complain it's too cold...

antisthenes 10y ago
Poor ventilation + heat is my personal hell. I can 'sit' for 8 hours at my desk and accomplish literally nothing in those conditions.