Want to be the coolest place to work? Think literally if you want to keep your female contingent
Opinion
Extreme heat is not experienced equally, and preparing for 2027 means recognising the particular impact rising temperatures can have on women, writes Lianre Robinson.
Summer 2026 is sadly drawing to a close; the memories (or perhaps hot flashbacks) of trying to work through 30°C+ temperatures are still lingering in the air. London hit 38.1°C this summer, and I was rarely seen without an assortment of fans trying to control my neck sweat. Commuting was hot and so was the office. Everyone has a desk fan pointed directly at their face, someone has suggested “just wearing linen”, and working from home suddenly seems like the obvious solution to avoid travelling in.
But while these quick fixes might get us through a heatwave, they point to a bigger question: if hotter summers are becoming the norm, why are our workplaces still treating extreme heat like a surprise?
Rather than scrambling to make the office bearable when temperatures rise, perhaps it’s time we started thinking about how our workplaces need to adapt to hotter summers in the long term.
Heat isn’t a level playing field
And while a hot office is uncomfortable for everyone, heat doesn’t affect everyone in quite the same way. The standard office temperature was designed in the 60s – set to what’s comfortable for a 40-year-old male wearing a wool suit. But as the workforce has evolved, and women and men regulate temperature differently, women are at a daily loss in the office heat games. And for those particularly going through menopause or pregnancy, rising temperatures can add a further layer of discomfort to an already challenging working environment.
Hot flushes and night sweats can make it harder to regulate body temperature during menopause, while pregnancy can also make people more sensitive to heat. That doesn’t mean women are somehow less able to cope with a hot day. It means the idea that one workplace environment should work equally well for everyone doesn’t quite stack up.
We already accept this in other high-performance environments. Look at elite sport: during extreme heat, athletes aren’t simply told to get on with it. At this year’s FIFA World Cup, cooling breaks, climate-controlled spaces and real-time heat monitoring were all part of managing the conditions – in fact, 19% of World Cup games reached heat levels warranting delays.
If we’re prepared to change the rules of the game when temperatures rise, perhaps we should be thinking about doing the same at work.
Sweat the small stuff (and the big stuff)
Do you do your best work while melting at a desk? I know I don’t. Let’s be honest, nobody does. Extreme heat isn’t just uncomfortable – it can affect concentration, productivity and happiness.
And that makes this a business issue, not just an office temperature issue. If people struggle to concentrate, change their commute, avoid the office, or simply count down until they can escape, that has a business impact.
And there’s also a retention question here. We’ve become much better at recognising that people’s working lives are shaped by different life stages, from pregnancy to menopause to fertility and family planning. Heat is another piece of that puzzle, and one we’re going to have to take increasingly seriously as UK summers get hotter.
This isn’t about creating a special rulebook for women. It’s about accepting something pretty obvious: there is no such thing as an “average” employee.
The better question is whether our workplaces are flexible enough to work for the people actually in them.
Putting the ‘hot’ in hot desk
The good news is that most of the solutions aren’t particularly complicated.
Flexible start and finish times can help people avoid travelling during the hottest parts of the day. Clear guidance on when home working or alternative arrangements can be used means employees aren’t left negotiating with their manager every time a heatwave hits.
Offices need access to cool, ventilated spaces and plenty of cold drinking water. Dress codes should be sensible enough to accommodate rising temperatures. And managers should know that some employees, including pregnant people and those experiencing menopause symptoms, may need additional flexibility.
None of this is particularly controversial. We already make workplace adjustments for other circumstances that affect how people work. Why should extreme heat be any different?
The bigger issue? Timing. A good heat policy needs to be in place before the thermometer rises, not improvised once everyone is sitting around in shorts wondering whether the air conditioning actually works.
Pass the SPF. And the workplace heat policy
The UK’s hottest recorded temperature now stands at 40.3°C, set in July 2022. And before 1990, the UK had never seen temperatures reach 37°C. We know hotter summers aren’t going away, so while we might be packing away the desk fans for another year, now is exactly the right time to start thinking about the next one.
For employers, that means looking beyond the quick fixes and asking some more useful questions. What happens when the temperature hits 30°C? What happens at 35°C? Who makes the call on working from home? Are managers equipped to support people who may be affected differently? And does our workplace actually give people the flexibility to work well when conditions change?
A good heat policy is a good people policy. It’s about creating workplaces that respond to the reality of how people live and work, rather than expecting everyone to simply adapt themselves to the environment around them.
We’ve got a year to get this right before the next summer rolls around. So, yes, the fans can go back in the cupboard. The heat policy shouldn’t.
Lianre Robinson is WACL (Women in Advertising and Communications, Leadership) campaigning co-chair and CEO of The Marketing Academy Foundation. Read her column for The Media Leader on the first Friday of every month.