How will your business cope with the heat?

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With the temperatures set to hit 32 degrees this week in the South East, and the mid to high 20s in other parts of the country what are you doing to make sure your workers are comfortable?

Unions are already calling for businesses to relax dress codes and allow shorts and office workers to remove ties, but that’s not going to help your pickers and packers if the temperature in your warehouse soars.

Whilst there are minimum temperatures for the work place there are no official maximums, although the HSE has previously defined them as “An acceptable zone of thermal comfort for most people in the UK lies roughly between 13°C (56°F) and 30°C (86°F), with acceptable temperatures for more strenuous work activities concentrated towards the bottom end of the range, and more sedentary activities towards the higher end”.

How to recognise
signs of
heat exhaustion

Hot flushed skin
Heavy sweating
Fatigue
Nausea
Vomiting
Rapid heart beat
Confusion
Darker than normal urine

Today you should be aware that if deliveries need to be unloaded outside that workers could be at risk of heat stroke. Shorter shifts in the sun, plenty of fluids to drink and perhaps even making sure sun protection is available makes sense. A person with heat exhaustion should be moved quickly to somewhere cool and given fluids, preferably water, to drink. They should start to feel better within half an hour.

Even inside with soaring temperatures in a warehouse with a tin roof temperatures will be higher than normal unless you’ve got air conditioning. Again making sure plenty of water is available to staff is a must.

What are you doing to keep working in the heat? Are you starting earlier in the morning to get the bulk of the work done before temperatures soar in the afternoon or is there something else that you’re doing to keep your business running and still take care of yourself and your staff?

6 Responses

  1. Thanks for the pointers Chris.
    B-)
    I need to make sure the wife stays in prime condition for picking and packing, so I shall make sure she knows where the outside tap is.
    B-)
    Enjoy the sun, it’s never around long enough.

    Mind you, reading those “how to recognise the signs of heat exhaustion”, they are exactly what I used to get 20 years ago on a Friday and Saturday night.!!!!

  2. I am already a man down due to the heat. Dog is having a torrid time so I’m ensuring he’s getting regular visits to the hosepipe in between his snoozes on the decking. Husband is enjoying getting a nice tan on one arm when driving to suppliers and doing the post run.

  3. stop whinging and enjoy it ,plenty of rain and wind snow etc just around the corner

  4. Well we’re in Scotland, so we got the heat, but no sun to go with it. yay.

    – however bad you had it working in a heatwave, just remember its currently Ramadan – our Muslim colleagues are working just as hard, whilst fasting. so no ice-poles, not even a bottle of water this month while the suns up.

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