Total Meltdown
Today, the CFO decided that FC and I didn't deserve air conditioning. Granted, it's not hot outside because it's now California Autumn (haha), but we sit by giant plate glass windows facing west, and the blinds don't help. We were melting.
The CFO and the CEO have adjoining offices, and so they share an AC system...and they got to have AC today. So did the Canadian Boys that work for our subsidiary just under 100 yards away (I walked over there and it was incredibly invigorating compared to my office). But for us...no, we didn't get to turn on our AC today. In fact, when FC couldn't take it anymore and turned it on...we subsequently got yelled at by the CFO: "WHO TURNED ON THE AC?!" After changing the thermostat to a higher temperature...he opened FC's vent (next to her desk) for some unknown reason, because it was no longer spouting cool air, since he'd raised the temperature! Then he left for lunch without saying anything to either of us.
It wouldn't have been so bad if it didn't feel like we were being singled out. Since we are the only two women that work upstairs in the office and sit in that particular area...it could have been construed as being sexist -- as in, "You're but only WOMEN. Ho, ho, ho...women don't do REAL work. You don't need a COMFORTABLE environment or FRESH air to work in. That's ludicrous."
If they were trying to save energy, then I would have appreciated a memo from the CFO or the CEO, stating that fact. I would have appreciated it if they explained why it was okay for them to shut down the AC in the immediate area in which FC and I were working. If they shut it down briefly, like for two hours or so, it would have been understandable. But to shut it down without any explanation and without any warning, and for you -- the person who shut it down -- to bask in the comfort of your own office, while the two of us are boiling and forced to work in such conditions? And to add insult to injury, getting visibly upset or angered by the fact that we found it unbearable and needed to turn it back on? That is absolutely ridiculous.
It bothers me to no end that the CFO and the CEO find it completely harmless to create such a...almost-hostile work environment. Who gets admonished for turning on the AC when there was no prior notification that the AC should be shut down? And, why would it be that only the AC within our area...gets shut down?
Sometimes it's not about the money or how production is. You just have to treat the people you work with humanely and hear them out as well as possible. I mean, you can stick to your principles -- I'm not saying to give them up -- but how about actually treating them as human beings and not so much like they are indentured servants, indebted to you indefinitely? And I'm not even talking about just FC and myself, I'm talking about everybody else, too
The CFO and the CEO have adjoining offices, and so they share an AC system...and they got to have AC today. So did the Canadian Boys that work for our subsidiary just under 100 yards away (I walked over there and it was incredibly invigorating compared to my office). But for us...no, we didn't get to turn on our AC today. In fact, when FC couldn't take it anymore and turned it on...we subsequently got yelled at by the CFO: "WHO TURNED ON THE AC?!" After changing the thermostat to a higher temperature...he opened FC's vent (next to her desk) for some unknown reason, because it was no longer spouting cool air, since he'd raised the temperature! Then he left for lunch without saying anything to either of us.
It wouldn't have been so bad if it didn't feel like we were being singled out. Since we are the only two women that work upstairs in the office and sit in that particular area...it could have been construed as being sexist -- as in, "You're but only WOMEN. Ho, ho, ho...women don't do REAL work. You don't need a COMFORTABLE environment or FRESH air to work in. That's ludicrous."
If they were trying to save energy, then I would have appreciated a memo from the CFO or the CEO, stating that fact. I would have appreciated it if they explained why it was okay for them to shut down the AC in the immediate area in which FC and I were working. If they shut it down briefly, like for two hours or so, it would have been understandable. But to shut it down without any explanation and without any warning, and for you -- the person who shut it down -- to bask in the comfort of your own office, while the two of us are boiling and forced to work in such conditions? And to add insult to injury, getting visibly upset or angered by the fact that we found it unbearable and needed to turn it back on? That is absolutely ridiculous.
It bothers me to no end that the CFO and the CEO find it completely harmless to create such a...almost-hostile work environment. Who gets admonished for turning on the AC when there was no prior notification that the AC should be shut down? And, why would it be that only the AC within our area...gets shut down?
Sometimes it's not about the money or how production is. You just have to treat the people you work with humanely and hear them out as well as possible. I mean, you can stick to your principles -- I'm not saying to give them up -- but how about actually treating them as human beings and not so much like they are indentured servants, indebted to you indefinitely? And I'm not even talking about just FC and myself, I'm talking about everybody else, too