Now Women Have More to Complain About With Office A/C. Yes, It Makes Them Cold, But Also Less Productive

It's a perennial problem -- or whine -- in most offices.  Men like the AC too high.

 Now it's turning out that it may be more than a problem for women; it might hurt their businesses, too.

 A new study says that most climate control systems in modern offices are based on the resting metabolic rate of a 40-year-old man, which runs up to 30 per cent faster than a woman's, according to nzherald.conz.

Yes, the story is from New Zealand but the study was done here.

 Half of the workforce is now female, and many of them are wrapping themselves up in blankets to be able to type without shivering, says The Today Show. "The new study finds that females prefer the average temperature at home and in the office to be 77 degrees, compared to 71.6 degrees for men."
"Research by the University of Southern California (USC) shows that women perform considerably worse than men when the temperature falls to 16C, and do not catch up in verbal tasks until conditions hit around 22C. In tests, they average 19 points at the lowest temperature and 23 at the highest," the web site reports.
In math skills, women only become comparable with men when temperatures reach 32C, the story adds.
The opposite is true for men, whose performance worsens as the temperature rises.
"It's been documented that women like warmer indoor temperatures than men, but the idea until now has been that it's a matter of personal preference," nzherald.conz quotes USC's Dr Tom Chang. "This study is saying even if you care only about money, you may want to crank up the temperature in your office buildings."
Current air conditioning standards are derived from research conducted in the 1960s which was based on the resting metabolic rate of one 154-pound, 40-year-old man.
"Women tend to have lower basal metabolic rates, so they tend to burn off energy a lot slower,'' Dr. Devi Nampiaparampil of NYU School of Medicine told TODAY. "They actually give off less heat than men, so they tend to be colder."
And when it's warmer out, that's when the sleeveless clothing comes out, too. So, women, be prepared.  Bring jackets and sweaters to work.  And, wouldn't you know it, it's not just weight that men beat us out on, too.  


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