"Some like it hot"

No, this post isn't about the famous movie, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon.  Although it was a pretty good movie for 1959 and was filmed on location at one of my favorite hotels in one of my favorite cities - the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California.  And no, this post isn't about the song by the 1980's supergroup, The Power Station (though again, that was a pretty good song, even for the 1980's).  No, this post isn't about something far more serious.  Something that occurs on an almost daily basis in just about every workplace in our country today.  I am talking about the thermostat wars.  Some like it hot, some like it cold, and some are never happy no matter what the temperature is in the workplace.  If I were to be completely honest, I probably fall somewhere between "some like it cold" and "never happy."  Just ask anyone at work about what's the first thing I do when I walk into the attending office on the 5th floor of the Critical Care Tower at our hospital.

It could be worse - Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg apparently likes to set his office thermostat around 60 degrees (all temperatures in this post are in Fahrenheit).  Apparently he believes a cooler environment is more conducive to productivity (and there are studies to support him).  The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) actually recommends that employers keep the thermostat set somewhere between 68 degrees and 76 degrees.

I am completely making a generalization here, but I am backed up by some evidence - women generally feel colder than men do at the same ambient temperature.  Another study by the Eindhoven University of Technology found that women generally prefer the room temperature to be set at 77 degrees (which, I will point out, is 1 full degree above the maximum temperature recommended by the United States government!), while men prefer temperatures around 72 degrees.  Based on what temperature my wife would like our thermostat set at in the summer, I would say this study is right on target.

So, does workplace temperature matter more than just personal comfort (which, I will say, is completely worth it)?  As it turns out, a group of investigators from the USC Marshall School of Business examined this exact question in a paper published very recently in the journal, PLOS One.  Basically, these investigators studied cognitive performance using standardized math, verbal, and cognitive reflection tasks at different room temperatures in males versus females.  The math tests involved adding up to five two-digit numbers without a calculator, while the verbal tests involved making as many words as possible using a scrambled set of ten letters.  The cognitive reflection task was a personal favorite of mine ("A bat and a ball cost 1.10 EUR in total.  The bat costs 1.00 EUR more than the ball.  How much does the ball cost?").  Basically, women generally performed better on the math and verbal tests when the room temperature was higher - the reverse was true with the men.  Room temperature had no impact on the cognitive reflection task for either gender.  I can't really provide you with the range of temperatures used, because they were provided in Celsius and I can't do the conversions - the temperature in our house is set too high!  Actually, I found an online conversion calculator and the temperatures in the study ranged from a very comfortable 60 degrees (at least if your last name is Zuckerberg and you are a billionaire CEO) to a sweltering 90 degrees.

Apparently, workplace temperatures are important.  The thermostat wars are worth fighting.  Unfortunately, it seems like no one will be completely happy with where the thermostat is set, which leads me to suggest compromise.  Except when I am working on the fifth floor of the Critical Care Tower, that is!