Working in an office should be a fairly comfortable environment, with the temperature kept at a normal level that everyone can live with.

What would you do if your office was very small and kept extremely cold to the point where you could hardly even focus on your work?

That is the environment that the woman in this story is in, but she can’t get anyone to adjust the temperature to something warmer, and she doesn’t know what to do.

If things really are as bad as she suggests, I think she should escalate the issue to her manager, HR, or even higher. Read through the full story below and see what you think she should do.

Can’t tolerate freezing office

My office is freezing. There’s one huge vent in a tiny box of an office that blows directly on me and keeps the temp in the low 60s.

A cold office is just as bad as one that is too hot.

I don’t have a thermostat, but share one with an office next door that has a large window and is always warmer, meaning my office is always over-cooled.

The office bathrooms are even colder. Frigid. I count the minutes every day until lunch when I can go to my car and thaw my aching joints.

Why can’t she work from home? Or at least shut the air vent.

I work in a salary job at a manufacturing plant and I’m well aware there are people working in risky and more uncomfortable situations than me, but I’d argue that their comfort should be considered too.

As I sit here in August, dressed in pants, sweater, and jacket with cold air blowing on the back of my neck and my nail beds turning purple, knowing I can do 100% of my job at home, I just can’t help but ask WHY.

Could this be considered an unsafe work environment?

Why is it worth basically refrigerating a huge building so I can freeze while attending teams meetings from my desk.

It almost feels like punishment, but I actually think it’s just because it would be too expensive to install or upgrade to a system that worked better.

She really isn’t asking for a lot.

I don’t require a luxurious amount of comfort.

I’m just tired of being freezing cold.

Being so cold at work is awful and can make you a lot less productive. She really should talk to her managers about finding a way to warm things up.

Read on to see if the people in the comments have any suggestions that might help.

At least this commenter was able to get the temperature fixed.

A heating pad might help a lot.

This commenter also deals with a very cold office.

I hope she has talked to management about it.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who makes his boss regret firing him for failing to take the blame for someone else’s error.

Here is another person who had an office like this.

She should escalate this issue to HR and maybe even get permission to work from home. Forcing someone to work in a very uncomfortable office is just out of line.

If they are unwilling to fix this issue, she should start looking for another job.