there have to be bright ideas that haven't found me yet, right?

[elvendoll]

the temperatures at which i'm comfortable seem to be a bit higher then that of most people - with a sweater, 68 is okay, 70-72 for just a long-sleeved shirt and 78 or so to be comfortable in a tshirt.
cold air blowing on me directly is uncomfortable no matter what i'm wearing if the temperature is below 85.

and when i say uncomfortable, i mean bothered to moderate distraction, both physically and emotionally, on good days and getting close to pushing me over the edge on bad days (like today).

our office is a huge cube farm, with no walls in the large open space. the vent above my cube is closed, but there's other vents around me that cant/won't be closed that blow cold air on me.

short of bringing in cardboard and making a ceiling for my cube, can anyone think of possible solutions?
on top of being upsetting in the first place, it's upsetting to me that my work performance and moods are affected by this every day.

Comments

[nymphochka.livejournal.com]

work-from-home, darling...

[elvendoll.livejournal.com]

if i thought i'd get any work done at home today, i prolly would've left already!

[fes42.livejournal.com]

Random Drive by - I have a space heater in my cube. And am very happy to have it. I will be on this summer when the a/c is cranked. I don't care I can't stand being a popcile anymore.

[elvendoll.livejournal.com]

i might end up doing that, thank you

[abtarchive.livejournal.com]

That is so frustrating.

1) Can the vents be redirected to blow in other directions?
2) Can your cube be moved to where there may be a little less access to the vents?
3) Is it possible to adjust the temperature up a degree or two or ask someone else to do it? It seems to me that a lot of people, esp, this time of year, complain about the too-cold air in office buildings.

Hope you can work it out :/

[elvendoll.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think they can be redirected - in fact, the one that bothers me the most isn't supposed to blow air out according to the maintenance people.
In theory, I might move within the next two months, but the cube area is kept this cold and the vents are equally dense accross the whole place, and there's no way in hell I'm getting a (warm) office.
And, the vent system here is all screwed up; there's 6 or 7 thermostats that all control random areas that aren't clearly mapped out (and often intersect) - and they're the old style of thermostat, with a toothpick-like thing to adjust temperatures by millimeters.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Here, people take file folders and tape/tack them over the vents so that the air is redirected. Could you climb up and try that?

[elvendoll.livejournal.com]

i'd love to!

sadly, they try to maintain a professional appearance, and wouldn't be okay with stuff hanging from the ceiling.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Our workplace doesn't officially allow it either, but they don't turn the damn cold air down, so people do it anyway -- wasn't sure if yours would be the same way. Maybe space heater and a big hat is the way to go...

[sensesurfer.livejournal.com]

Put a space heater under your desk.

[elvendoll.livejournal.com]

*nods*

i might end up doing that. i'm worried that it won't solve the issue, though, because the cold air will still be blowing on me from above. now i'm wondering if i could find a wall/cube mountable space heater that could be about head-level for me.

[frobzwiththingz.livejournal.com]

where do you work? can you get in after hours?

[elvendoll.livejournal.com]

i can get in after hours, but i would get in (serious) trouble if the vent stuff was altered : (

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Lots of hot tea (or hot beverage of choice) will keep you toasty from the inside out. Bring a sweater to leave at work. Space heater isn't a bad idea either.

And bug the guys in maintenance or operations, whoever deals with that sort of thing. This is part of my job here. There's a chance that they're just being lazy about finding you a solution, and if you complain enough, they'll figure something out just so you'll stop calling. It's happened a few times--we have lots of fluctations in temperature when the weather changes, and people bitch. So I bitch to Ops. Things get done.

Good luck. :)

[elvendoll.livejournal.com]

there's two big roadblocks:
one is that i'm the only one who's bothered by the temperature. the second one is that the solution would possibly entail reconfiguring which thermostats go to which vents (right now, noone even has a map of how they're connected!) and since that wasn't done when the space was being prepped for us, i'm guessing it can't be done now.

and i drink 5-6 cups of tea daily and usually have a sweater here (took it home to wash it last week, forgot to bring it back and am borrowing hawver's jacket at the moment)

thank you : )

[sweetbaboo.livejournal.com]

Golf umbrella?

[elvendoll.livejournal.com]

one coworker had suggested a tent...

[septembervirgin.livejournal.com]

Hullo love!