Mexico. It is one of the countries where people spend more time of their lives to work. Mexicans invest 2,255 hours a year, that is, 43 hours a week, a figure considered one of the highest within the 34 economies that make up the OECD. In Germany, for example, they work 1,363 hours a year.
However, as revealed by the OECD 2018 Hours Worked Indicator, productivity is not related to the number of hours invested as it also depends on factors such as organizational culture and work environment, in addition to the conditions of safety, comfort, ventilation, distribution and air conditioning of workspaces.
Today, the concept of happiness in the workplace is being a trend that many companies seek in order to ensure the health and increase the productivity of workers, as revealed by the study carried out by the Social Market Foundation and the University of Warwick, which indicates that appropriate spaces motivate a good working environment among employees.
Even organizational psychologists point out that the workspace plays a fundamental role in the way workers feel and carry out their activities; so in these times where competition is increasing, work areas have become a tool for talent management and retention.
In this new model where environments that promote comfort are promoted, it is necessary to consider a factor such as temperature, as it favors the development of certain skills in both men and women. Years ago the Campbells soup brand conducted a study to find out what they could do to get people to consume their products in the workplace and the conclusion was that this depended not on the price, nor the taste, but on the temperature of the office. So if temperature influences our consumption habits, it can also influence our way of thinking.
"There are flexible, reliable, intelligent and energy-efficient solutions on the market that adapt to the needs of each work environment. So if it comes to increasing productivity, and generating better work environments, a good air conditioning system contributes to achieving it, "says Carlos García, CEO of Trane.
Researchers from Cornell University conducted a study at an insurance company and verified that when temperatures were low, below 20 degrees, employees were wrong 44% more times and were less than half as productive as when temperatures were warm, around 25 degrees.
Doctors have pointed out that when our body temperature drops, we devote part of our energy to keeping body temperature regulated, which subtracts energy for concentration and inspiration; it is even known that the area of the brain called insular cortex is activated by pleasant thermal sensations and with it feelings of trust and empathy are generated.
Therefore, thermal comfort that is related to temperature, air velocity and humidity, becomes essential for the good performance of activities in an office. Although not feeling hot or cold has a degree of subjectivity, it is advisable to achieve maximum comfort in a building should be, during the summer, between 23 and 26 degrees Celsius, and during the winter, keep the heating between 20 and 24 degrees Celsius.
Trane experts point out that, in addition to lighting, acoustics and distribution, air conditioning is very important in a workspace to provide freshness and comfort in a building.
However, the scientific studies mentioned above have shown that the formula to standardize the temperature in the workplace was based only on the comfort of men, since it is known that this could increase by 35% the production of heat in the body of a woman, being her metabolism slower than that of the man.
This is confirmed by research published in the journal PLOS One showing that at colder temperatures, men perform better on verbal and arithmetic assessments than women, so as the temperature gets warmer, scores on them improve considerably.
According to Agne Kajackaite, an economics researcher at the WZB Center for Sociology in Germany, and author of the study, she points out that, "if temperatures are colder, men are much better than women and, as the temperature increases, the gap disappears and women outperform men in verbal evaluations."
With the above, we understand why on many occasions inside the offices, phrases such as: how hot!, turn on the air conditioning; and at the other end a woman answers: no! it's very cold, raise the temperature. This is because the metabolic differences between men and women make us react differently to both cold and heat.
"There are many issues associated with the lack of air conditioning in an office, such as sweating, headaches, low blood pressure, fatigue and even bad mood among employees," said Carlos García.
The good thing is that there are a wide variety of solutions on the market to counteract the effects of heat or cold in an office.
* Article provided by Trane de México.
