In the old days I had an office.
Granted it was not much of an office, and it had no windows, but at least it was a place of my own. Once they completed the renovations to the building, my office was simply no longer there. Several of the smaller offices had been taken down, the walls removed, and the whole area was turned into a “bullpen” where all the desks were together in one room. This would make a lot more sense for any other department, but for those of us making sales calls all day, it is a real hassle. The AC has become a surprising problem, and is slowly overtaking the noise issue and my primary complaint about the new offices. Trying to talk over a bunch of other salespeople is irritating, but doing it while dripping sweat due to poor air conditioning is a million times worse. Being a salesperson means you have to be your best, you have to be sharp and personable, all of which is hard to do without proper cooling. It turns out that the lack of AC was not a structural or a mechanical problem, it was human greed! My boss just didn’t want to pay the sky high electric bills so he started locked down the thermostat and letting us sweat it out. I talked to my union rep about the problem, to see if they could influence the bosses to run the AC more, but I think I’m on my own with this one. Maybe I can bring in my own portable A/C unit.