To be utterly pissed off and fed up with this weather….

[TheFairCat]

I know there’s already been loads of threads about it, so apologies for being so original but OH MY GOD!

I’m not usually a particularly whiny person and I don’t ever remember being particularly troubled by hot ( or cold!) weather before but honestly, I feel like I’m going lose my mind!

Maybe it’s combined with hot flushes or something because no one else I know seems to be struggling that much.

I was fine at first; just thought it would only be a couple of days we’d have to suck it up. We
got the fans out, ate a criminal amount of ice lollies and did as little as possible. But now it feels like it’s been a couple of weeks of non stop over 28 degree heat every day where I live. It’s also unbearably humid. Trying to clean the house is grim. I feel like I’m swimming through treacle and my brain is mush. I can’t concentrate on work, I can’t sleep at night. I am constantly uncomfortable and the house has now heated up to such an extent that no room is even close to cool.

I realise this probably sounds ridiculous but I can’t really go out in this heat. I mean I can go to work (though my office has no air con and is also grim) and I can manage the school run and the supermarket etc, but I can’t go for a walk, or run about at the park with the kids. I definitely wouldn’t want go out in town or mooch about the shops, or eat out etc. I don’t want go in the garden because it’s so hot. The swimming pool is lovely but the changing rooms are beyond the pale. There’s no way I could cope with a day out at the zoo or a theme park with the kids.

I’ve never been so hot or so uncomfortable in my life! I have lots of loose, comfortable clothes, summer shoes etc but I still feel like I want to rip my skin off!

Is it just me? Weather forecast seems to be saying 10 more days of heat wave and I could cry!

Same. I worry I’m slipping into such severe depression I probably should be signed off work but they’re not sympathetic at all despite me having a physical job that can potentially make me overheat in the current weather.

I'm so sorry!

Has your workplace updated their health and safety to take into consideration the extreme heat?

They have a duty of care
If they expect you to work a manual job outside, all day, are they doing anything, allowing you to go home early, take extra breaks, providing cold water for free, anything?

You mustn't put yourself in danger of suffering heat exhaustion!

I’m a fitness instructor. I work in several places and it varies in terms of environment and the control of temperature. A couple of places are very aware and take it seriously, however one place (my main work) is not at all prepared to make reasonable adjustments (they won’t even do that for my autism and ADHD!) and whilst the gym and studies are cooler with air conditioning, I also teach aqua fit and they aren’t happy if I cancel. Partly as can’t get any one to cover and they also don’t take it seriously when I say I have been medically advised since childhood that if heat and humidity exceed certain levels I shouldn’t really be out.

That really sucks. I would think a lot of people would appreciate a fitness instructor having to cancel due to the heat, but I appreciate that's a totally different thing from management.

I used to have an outside security job. And one day I had to phone in because it had been an extremely hot day, and by the time I started work, I felt faint and weak just walking to the train station. I had to turn back.

When I rang in there was frank incredulity from my supervisor. She had a tone of total disbelief at what I assume she imagined was my brass neck, and sheer emotional wooliness in 'crying off' work because it was a bit hot.

It was recorded breaking temperatures and I wasn't going to end up in A&E.

As someone with several health conditions myself, I do find it quite disgusting how unprepared to make adjustments many employers are. It's when you work in the grey zone of being self employed but requiring the use of licensed third party spaces, organisers or agencies. They can skirt the laws of H&S. As a woman who has also never used contraception, even basic sanitary provisions or toilets aren't always provided for in such setups. It's quite shocking to encounter in the 21st century. People never believe me.

Well if this is the future they're all going to have to start implementing changes to accommodate for extreme heat. We cannot keep burying our heads in the sand.

I just hope it gets better for us all next week. Today is already horrible and it's early!

Hope you’re okay. I’m living off isotonic drinks at the moment. Frustratingly even a doctor said to me a few years ago, my immune system is really strong and hardly anything touches me until the heat arrives. It’s the one thing my system cannot manage. During several winters I’ve been the only one at work not to be off sick with the colds and flu every one else gets so can’t understand why no allowance for me .

It's 36° in my garden at the moment, the upstairs of the house is 32° with all curtains closed, it's unbearable