Work & Ambition
The Thermostat War
For two years I logged the temperature in our conference room before every meeting. I have the data. I have the chart. I have the receipts. And the room is still set for him.
Read →Point / Counterpoint
Her side
I am not cold. You are wearing too many layers.
For nineteen years I sat in conference rooms in a cardigan and accepted that my body was the problem. Then I read the 1966 thermostat study. Forty-year-old man, 154 pounds, business suit. He is dead. The setting he picked has outlived him by sixty years and is currently making the entire fifth floor of my building uninhabitable for women between 38 and 60. We are 41% of the staff. Take off the jacket. I am not the one running cold. You are the one running cold. The room is set for him. Take. Off. The. Jacket.
His side
You changed it again.
I get up to use the bathroom at 4 AM and the room is 64 degrees and there is a fan pointed at the bed at full speed and my wife is sleeping like she is on vacation. I am wearing pajama pants and a long-sleeve shirt and socks and I am still cold. I love this woman more than anyone on earth and I would walk through fire for her and I will not say a word about the thermostat. I will, however, get a second comforter. And a hat. I am writing this in a hat.
