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Researchers: The Thermostat In Your Office May Be Sexist
sciencehabit writes: If you're constantly bundling up against your office building's air conditioning, blame Povl Ole Fanger. In the 1960s, this Danish scientist developed a model, still used in many office buildings around the world, which predicts comfortable indoor temperatures for the average worker. The problem? The average office worker in the 1960s was a 40-year-old man sporting a three-piece suit. But fear not, those for whom the 'work sweater' has become a mandatory addition to office attire: Researchers say they have built a better model.
the other practicality is that if its set too warm, there will be more post-lunch snoozing than there would be if you keep the place frosty.
Forget comfort, its all about productivity!
Those women can add clothes to solve being too cold.
Clothes doesn't help after a point. If it's too cold, one's fingers can get cold, stiff and uncoordinated and that makes it harder to type. Ignoring the fact that women have lower peripheral circulation than men on average exacerbating the problem, I personally find that at my ideal comfortable temperature for working in indoor winter clothes (i.e. long trousers, t-shirt) it's in fact too cold for me to type with 100% comfort. I find that I'm something like the woman in this one: http://dilbert.com/strip/2005-...
But yes, it makes sense to go for the coldest temperature that people can tolerate given normal office attire. Sadly for me, fingerless gloves aren't normal office attire, so that temperature is above my ideal level.
SJW n. One who posts facts.