By Simon Robinson, Yourmedway and Yourmaidstone news editor

This weather we are having is intolerable.

It’s too hot, too humid and too distracting; constantly filling my mind with thoughts of shorts, sandals, seaside, beer, beer gardens and bbqs and other non-work, outdoor fun-in-the-sun daydreams.

All of which makes my daily task of making phone calls, sifting through hundreds of emails, writing news stories and managing reporters somewhat more arduous.

The powers-that-be have made efforts to make my working life a little more bearable during this mini heatwave of ours.

I’ve kindly been provided with a small desktop fan, which is trained on my brow from mid morning to early evening, and our office’s patio doors are inevitably opened at some point throughout the day to further aid the flow of fresh air into the newsroom.

But try as I might, when the sun starts shining and the temperature passes 25 degrees or so I still can’t seem to shake off a burning yet entirely irrational sense of injustice at being made to work on such a beautiful day in such stuffy circumstances.

This isn’t your typical British ‘it’s too hot, it’s too cold’ moan at the weather, though.

No, my issue is with The Management.

It is inarguably too hot to work in these balmy, humid conditions. We can’t change the weather but there are other variables we can alter.

For instance, why don’t we roll out a formal summer office wear for men? Suits are out, shorts and flip flops are in.

A free ice cream coupon would also do wonders to improve weather-affected workers’ morale.

Transport chiefs could also replace stuffy, overcrowded buses with those open-deck tourist guide models.

Or how about we just accept that productivity is bound to go down slightly on the rare occasions when it’s hotter in this country than in Bermuda or an equivalent tropical paradise?

When your boss asks you for those reports/spreadsheets or otherwise that you said you’d have finished by noon an acceptable response should be: “Look Sir, it’s hotter than the sun in here. I’ll get them to you by tomorrow.”

All of these flawless suggestions would improve our daily working lives immeasurably.

And there are equivalents for the winter cold snap.

How about free hot water bottles? Free mugs of hot chocolate? How about some grit on the roads? (On second thought, perhaps that last one’s asking a little too much)

We Brits aren’t used to extreme temperatures, be they hot or cold. We are used to rain and darkness. It’s what we’re cut out for.

If we want the sun or the snow we go on holiday. That’s the way it’s always been and it’s the way it should always remain.

So unless The Management can find a way to replace the unbearable summer sun and the ice-cold winter frost from Monday to Friday I suggest they take the above pointers on board.

Office shorts and flip flops are the way forward.

 

There is a simple solution to overheated offices - air conditioning.

This makes the office a more comfortable place to work - thus ensuring staff are able to concentrate on their work and not be distracted by sweat, heat, lack of comfort, etc. In essance, a win-win solution. (even H & S cannot complain about this!!)