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The Great British Heatwave

‘Let workers clock off early when temperatures hit 25 degrees’, union says

Humans are actually pretty adaptable. These are the sorts of temperatures that “afflict” Southern Europe for most of the summer.

Daniel Shears, health and safety director at GMB Union, urged employers to introduce special measures including fans for those working from home once temperatures reach a certain level.

Twat. A fan costs £30 maybe. Having a “scheme” for employers to supply them would triple, quadruple, the cost of having them. It simply does cost tens and tens of pounds to do the paperwork to make a corporate purchase.

Jeez, let adults decide their own working conditions.

19 thoughts on “The Great British Heatwave”

  1. Hmmm! I notice the maximum temperature today in Brissy was 23 degrees C. I still had my sweater on.

    I don’t think I’d be lying around gasping if it was 25.

  2. I believe from overhearing other reports that this is the GMB union. The B standing for Boilermakers. I wonder if it isn’t time for that union to rename itself General Penpushers and Noodle-armed Soyboys.

  3. Otto, @ 6.38, the thought of working with colleagues who are in their undercrackers is another reason to be glad i’m retired.

    After rail privatisation, one of the new Train Operating Companies issued shorts for the drivers. There were some sights that can never be unseen…..

  4. As most people now seem to be working from home, couldn’t they just step away from the computer and pour themselves a nice cool drink? And maybe open a window?

  5. Since when have fans been “special measures”? As opposed to the bleeding obvious which they have been for at least 5,000 years.

  6. Bloke in the Fourth Reich

    Southern Europe 25?

    I seem to remember my first summer in Milan, which is arguably not even in southern Europe, not getting under 30 at any time of day or night. It was also the last summer I didn’t have air conditioning.

  7. When I lived in Penang, Malaysia it was pretty much 30C every hour of every day bar the occasional squall or thunderstorm. We just opened the windows at dawn, took cold showers and had the fan running. Perfectly acceptable for anyone and barely broke a sweat out of the sunshine.

    Humans, even those born in our rainy isles, are surprisingly adaptable.

    Unlike the bloody union wallahs.

  8. Be cooler in the office. They know what to do then. Go to fucking work.

    Reckon this working from home nonsense is going to prove a bigger disaster than Covid. You now have companies pleading & even threatening to get their employees to drop by once in a while. The sooner AI replaces all these desk jockies the better.

  9. It might just make 25 today. After two weeks of very english weather. And already the bloody latins are bitching about the heat. I have just, this minute, been asked to turn the aircon on. Fuck off. Apparently no, some people can’t adapt. Even given 5000 years to do so.

  10. It’s the humidity, innit? We had no trouble with 40C when we lived in S Australia: desert’s edge = low humidity = all you need is a ceiling fan.

    Living in Queensland in The Wet was a different matter. Rather foul, actually. The Dry, though, was magnificent.

    I also recall NJ in the summer: urgh! It was best to be young and slim because the Y didn’t have air con.

  11. It is the humidity, dearieme. Probably why my latina’s bitchin’. Two weeks of rain, bit of sun, humidity’s way up.
    I spent some time in the Sahara, few years back. Daytime temps in the mid 40s. Still possible to function although one doesn’t seem to sweat. It dries too quickly. And one, or at least I, adapted. Didn’t even need to drink that much more.

  12. 25c is 77f – where I live you wouldn’t work outside 9 months out of the year. For 6 months there would only be a narrow window between 2 am and and sunrise (5:30 – 6:30).

    I find it hard to believe that in a place that prides itself on having no air conditioning that workers can’t handle 30c on the regular.

  13. BiFR

    my in-laws used to live in Milan and then moved out onto the Plain to the south, nearer Crema. Summer was hellish for me – the humidity magnified the heat and I was clonking out all over the place. Winters were of course almost constant pea-soupers.
    They had a family of bats living in the roof and I liked sitting in the garden watching them zoom around.

  14. Life in the UK is becoming unbearable!

    Droughts, heatwaves. I’ve only just gotten over the Great Tomato Famine of February 22nd to March 4th.

    There wasn’t a tomato to be had (unless you went to the Co-Op which seemed to have plenty for some reason). Oh, and my local Tesco express had some.

    But it was proof of climate change and that Brexit had failed.

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