Enjoying the Heat?

 re you enjoying the period of hot weather we are in the middle of (in the UK)?  Some people don't but most seem to like it. 

Of course it may depend on your work situation.

If you can work from home in your tee shirt and shorts, you might think the hot weather is a bonus.  If, however, you have to of in to the office in s shirt snd tie (and even jacket) you might have a different idea. 

It might even make you ill or exacerbate a condition you already have.

In some industries, such as agriculture and construction,  there is a clear drop in productivity and/or effectiveness in hot weather - where there is a clear loss of working hours and some jobs cannot be carried out in extreme hear.

And if things are bad in the UK, spare a thought for southern Europe where temperatures are even higher.

And this heatwave is not a one-off incident or freak - it is the direction of travel. Global warming means we are increasingly likely to be exposed to such conditions.  We need to begin treating it as such.  We need top stop making small, temporary adjustments and plan an infrastructure that supports effective economic activity in the changing climate.

For example, we may have to switch working hours to cooler periods of the day, increase flexible working, improve (preferably passive) cooling of workplaces, and so on.

Such measures may be inconvenient and will obviously incur some cost but it may be preferable to always invoking emergency measures to protect the workforce from excessive heat and keep changing planned activity.