How To Stay Cool At Work

Don’t be afraid of roasting in the office – follow these simple tips and you’ll soon be chilling out at work.

If you work in a modern office, you might be lucky enough to have an air conditioning system to keep you comfortable. But I reckon the majority of the businesses in the UK aren’t nearly so lucky. So how we can keep ourselves cool when summer’s in full blast?

Hold Your Cold Drinks

While you might be tempted to drink your cold can of sody-pop to cool down, here’s another idea: hold it instead. Scientists at Stanford University say that our palms are full of special ‘heat-transfer veins’ that can be used to cool our core temperature. They’re testing this in the lab with people using a special cooling glove, but why not try doing it with an ice-cold can of Coke? (Oh, and the boffins say it can help with sports performance too.)

Draw Your Blinds

If your office is cooler than the street, then lower your blinds or draw the curtains to stop it heating it up inside – but bear in mind this will be more effective if they’re made of light-coloured material. That’s because white cloth reflects light, while black absorbs it. (That’s why people in terribly hot countries wear so many white outfits.) What’s good for the office is also good for you – stick to white, flowing, clothes on the way to work so you can billow and reflect heat.

Get two fans for the office

If you’re sitting in a baking office, but you can sense the whisper of a cool breeze outside, get yourself two fans. Place one next to a window but facing into the room. Get the other one and place across the room, pointing out of a window. What you want is to be able to draw an imaginary line straight between the fans. The first fan will suck air into the room and push it towards the second fan. That one will push the heat through the second window and into the street. (If you only have one fan, place a bowl of ice in front of it, to blow the chill towards you.)

Drink Your Hot Drinks

It’s long been rumoured that hot drinks help you cool down – which would explain why chai is so popular in India – but now it looks like there’s proper evidence to back it up. Researchers have found that when we drink something hot, our bodies makes us sweat more and when it evaporates it cools us down. Overall, we end up less hot than before. The catch is that if you’re wearing a lot of clothes, the sweat can’t actually evaporate. Maybe something to try on a casual Friday when it’s OK to wear t-shirts and shorts?

Keep hydrated

Drink plenty of water – our bodies are 75% water and we lose a lot through perspiring in the summer. So make frequent trips to the water cooler. As everyone is different in terms of physique, the amount of water one needs can vary from person to person. One good way to see if you’re getting enough fluid is check the colour of your pee. It should be pale golden, rather than a dark orange. (This has all gone a bit weird, hasn’t it?)

Mop Your Brow

While we do sell mops, I mean this in a figurative sense. If it gets really hot, just dab a cold cloth on your head and neck. In the past, I’ve also seen people use an empty spritz-bottle of screen cleaner to cool down. They washed it thoroughly (no stinging eyes wanted), filled it with tap water and rosewater, then spritzed themselves. I tried it once; really refreshing and smelled lovely too.