I am very curious to have your opinion on a situation that happened this morning in my workplace. It’s gonna be a long post but I felt I needed to provide as much context as possible.
Let me introduce you to my coworker. For the sake of this post, I will refer to him as Jeremy. Jeremy works in the sales department and he’s a big dude; over 6 feet tall and over 300 pounds. He’s loud and quite frankly a tad obnoxious. He frequently eats breakfast at this desk, and by breakfast I need to clarify that his breakfast is a couple of quarter-pound cheeseburgers.
Jeremy is constantly hot. He spends a considerable amount of time getting up and adjusting the thermostat. He found the perfect temperature for his comfort and as soon as someone brings up the temperature, he immediately gets up and readjust the temperature and always makes the same comment to the person who changed the temperature: It’s easier for others to warm themselves than for him to cool himself down. Id they are cold they should bring a sweater.
The sales department and accounting are very close to one another. The people working in accounting are of smaller stature and they feel that the temperature fixed by Jeremy is unreasonable. They decided they had enough and explained the situation to their manager. For this discussion, I will refer to him as Michael.
Michael is a straight to the point, no-nonsense kind of person. He’s very direct and he’s sometimes considered a bit rough by his employees. After learning about this situation, Michael decided to readjust the temperature to a more reasonable one and decided to stick around nearby, knowing that Jeremy would come over soon.
Like clockwork, Jeremy makes his way to the thermostat, where Michael confronts him asking what he’s doing. Jeremy answers that it’s too hot and wants to bring the temperature back to ‘’normal’’. Michael answers that the temperature is just fine the way it is and not to tamper with it anymore, as it is starting to affect the productivity and well-being of his employees. Jeremy retorts, it’s easier for the others to warm themselves by bringing a sweater than it is for him to cool himself down.
Here’s the kicker: Michael answers back to Jeremy, saying that if he would resort to eating only one whole roast beef a day, maybe he wouldn’t feel hot all the goddamn time.
Jeremy, offended, decides to file a complaint to HR and claims that Michael bullied him with his comments.
How do you feel about this incident and what would you have done if you were in Michael’s or Jeremy’s position?
TL,DR : Overweight employee who tries to control the office temperature at the expense of others is told by a manager to stop and to eat better.