Why you should let staff control the office air con

With the sun out and offices nationwide at the mercy of air conditioning, a new report has found that handing control of the temperature back to workers actually improves their physical and mental health.

A study by Savills and the British Council for Offices (BCO), titled ‘What Workers Want’, polled 1,132 UK office workers and found a clear correlation between those who say they have less control over the set-up and design of their working environment and those who report negative physical and mental health scores.

Savills and the BCO asked what factors they look for in a workplace, and how much they believe that their current environment satisfies those requirements.

Workers in a private office, as opposed to an open plan one, said it had a positive effect on their mental health (50% compared to 45%).