Partner Article

Bosses letting down hot office workers

UK office workers are dreading the next heat wave as two-thirds of bosses fail to provide workplaces suitable for hot weather.

A survey of 1,000 workplaces by IronmongeryDirect, the UK’s largest online supplier of ironmongery products, reveals that in 65% of offices workers are left tired, drowsy (35%) irritable (25%) and unable to concentrate (17%) by soaring office temperatures.

As a result the quality of their work suffers. Over half of office workers (55%) say that they are less productive in a hot work environment and more than one in five (22%) say that they struggle to get any work done.

Top of the list of hot-worker bugbears are office smells (the top complaint for 44% of workers), especially smells from sweaty co-workers.

People also find office environments stuffy and struggle to breathe properly (37%), meaning that many will open windows (67%) or even prop open fire doors (16%) in order to let in fresh air.

Wayne Lysaght-Mason, managing director at IronmongeryDirect, said: “While not every office can have full air-conditioning, bosses can clearly do more to create a comfortable working environment.

“Adapting windows and doors so that they can let in fresh air is a simple measure that can be taken in any office. Especially important are measures to ensure fire doors that are propped open will close in the event of a fire. Simple and cheap door closers, such as those by Dorgard, can be easily fitted to keep workers comfortable and safe.”

As well as conducting research, IronmongeryDirect has also developed a fun and interactive quiz for office workers to calculate how hot and smelly their office is, in order to raise awareness of this issue. The quiz is available at http://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/stink-o-meter

For more information, visit http://www.IronmongeryDirect.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ursula Hutchinson .