The thermostat in your workplace is probably a fake.

[yllus]

When putting the heat on is easier said than done

Office dwellers can take cold comfort in something they have long suspected ? your workplace thermostat is probably a sham.

Those little gauges on the wall likely change the temperature within only a narrow band. The real controls lie deep within the building, accessible only to technicians and beyond the grasp of shivering employees who don sweaters in August.

Working conditions could be worse. One heating, ventilation and air-conditioning expert estimated that 90 per cent of U.S. office thermostats are fake, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year.

It comes down to simple psychology, the story suggested. A thermostat, even a phony one, makes workers feel they can control their environment, and keeps service calls down.

But air conditioning and heating experts say decoys are few and far between in Canada.

Okay, it's not a serious article but worth posting for its comedic value anyhow.

 

[FoBoT]

yes

it is always hot in my cubicle/floor

i think the little old ladies control the minds of the maintenance people

 

[amnesiac]

If that's true I'm running down to the administration office and kicking some ass. It was in the high 80's in my office today. I couldn't get any work done because I was zoning out from the heat.

 

[ElFenix]

heheh thats funny

 

[Joony]

WHOA! thats true!

 

[Pliablemoose]

Yep, read about this over a year ago, the thermostats in my workplace have no direct action on the temperature. To really change anything, you have to call engineering/HVAC folks.

 

[Pepsi90919]

it's not a serious article? where does it say that?

 

[NoReMoRsE]

You can always rely on the Toronto Star for its quality reporting.

 

[Eli]

LOL.. that's fscked.

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: NoReMoRsE
You can always rely on the Toronto Star for its quality reporting.

I personally prefer The National Post, but the Star is great for Toronto-centric issues.

 

[RU482]

I had a paranoid co-worker conviced that the auto-light sensor above his cube was a camera, watching him. It was great!!

 

[bunker]

We moved to a new building about a year ago, no thermostats in this one, but in the old one, the one actual working thermostat was in my office.
Our entire half of the floor was at my mercy when it came to the temp! buwhahahaha.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

I am the service technician, MUUUAAAHHHHHH

 

[slick230]

The thermostats in my office expel poisonous gas.

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
yes

it is always hot in my cubicle/floor

i think the little old ladies control the minds of the maintenance people

Yup!
They are still bitchin that they are cold when it's 80º F.

 

[GoodToGo]

At least some of you have a thermostat.

 

[yllus]

Bump for the midday crew.

 

[yukichigai]

Vaguely related, my high school often times seemed to use the air conditioning and heating in a manner conflicting with the weather, i.e. it would be 50 degrees outside and the A/C would be on. I finally asked the secretaries about it and found out that apparantly for tax purposes the high school did not actually have controls for their own thermostats. As it turned out the control center for our high school's heating and air conditioning was located somewhere in Nebraska. That's right, Nebraska. Because the climate there is so much like Nevada.

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: yukichigai
Vaguely related, my high school often times seemed to use the air conditioning and heating in a manner conflicting with the weather, i.e. it would be 50 degrees outside and the A/C would be on. I finally asked the secretaries about it and found out that apparantly for tax purposes the high school did not actually have controls for their own thermostats. As it turned out the control center for our high school's heating and air conditioning was located somewhere in Nebraska. That's right, Nebraska. Because the climate there is so much like Nevada.

Yes, my high school would turn the AC on over the weekend, and we would find ice in the air ducts, which would melt during class causing in-class rains from the ceiling.