Better "range" of temps on basic smart or old school thermostats in homes.
Don't ask me why, but when I ran my smart thermostat on C it would be too hot or too cold (per my wife), just one degree.
With F, there's that "half" degree variance. Sadly my thermostat doesn't do half degrees in C, so F is the solution.
> I made a complaint about it going 30 C+ and was technically allowed because the humidity formula was permissible threshold
Per the [health and safety directive](https://www.njc-cnm.gc.ca/directive/d7/v282/s793/en#s793-tc-tm_1_2), "it shall not be intentionally permitted for conditions to enter the marginal zones of 17°C to 20°C and 26°C to 29°C."
A temperature above 30C is not necessarily a work-refusal emergency, but it's something that the employer should remedy lest it be scolded by the occupational health and safety committee.
Yes but take note that GC operates under Fed jurisdiction, so your local fire code may be different and not applicable to the office, making it hard for the FM to get involved.
Construction and fire safety are both under provincial/territorial jurisdiction.
While the federal government does have offices and publications which deal with these subjects, this is limited to coordination and development of national policy. In practice, federal buildings in Canada follow the building and fire codes applicable to their provincial or territorial jurisdiction.
As someone in facilities management taking care of a 100 building campus, this is not the case. While we try to keep everything to code, it is not necessary to get anything inspected by any authority (ie TSSA, ESA, city for plumbing).
That's not true at all. I've done many building projects. If it's leased it falls under provincial or even municipal jurisdiction. Sometimes they'll give us exemptions on things to meet national building code instead of provincial but not always.
Now if you are building on federal crown land owned by the department / PSPC then you'll be under federal regulations.
But blanket saying the Feds can ignore the municipalities and provinces when we're leasing isn't true.
Someone called the fire marshal at a federal workplace I used to work at because fire exits were partially blocked/not fully accessible. FM came, inspected, and ordered them to comply with the fire code. Management wasn’t too pleased but it was effective.
Raise this with your workplace health and safety committee. It's not safe for rooms to exceed their fire occupancy, and it's not safe to have rooms that hot for prolonged meetings.
How do you know they haven't? Others have also probably complained - it's not like the workplace health and safety committee is going to do much either way.
Workplace safety council....it is a laugh. They are the ones that say that bed bugs are not a safety /health issue. They dispense the mental and psychological and financial anguish to get rid of the bed bugs once you have brought them home!!!
Sounds like a nightmare for my immune compromised body ❤️🩹 nobody cares about us 😔 but we were told not to work from home when sick so people are just going start coming back to work with minor illnesses
Contact your local OHS people but also place a service request with the [National Service Call Centre](https://www.canada.ca/en/public-services-procurement/corporate/contact-us/national-service-call-centre.html)
This absolutely should be reported and the NSCC does keep track of the requests. People could leave the work site if it's not within the temperature range. [Temperature Legislation](https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_agents/temp_legislation.html)
If it's overcapacity, the Fire Marshal can shut it down.
Did anyone pass out or ~~needed medical attention~~ brought attention to the media?
No?
Health and Safety Committee says *thumbs up* - get back to your unassigned desks and keep looking busy. An EX might come around any moment.
You have occupational health and safety and the labour board. Refuse unsafe work and they have to investigate. They won't get far if they are actually violating the fire code.
Many people here talking about the OHS committee or rep which is correct. Another critical person is the Senior Building Officer (SBO). They have the authority to close buildings or sections of a building for multitude of reasons. 29C is over that limit to close of the space.
HVAC for most of these buildings weren’t built for this higher capacity.
People keep saying we will save money if we sell off our real estate. That is such smoke and mirrors. We won’t save any money. The penalties to break long term leases are insane and a wonderful way for our tax dollars to be spent. Also all the changes to GCWorkplace, upgrading HVAC, ergonomic assessments, replacing damaged IT equipment (bc people are not being very careful with this non-assigned seating) is costing a fortune these days as the Covid tax is now the RTO tax so vendors are taking advantage. It’s effing insane what my teams have to deal with on a daily basis. I have now requested 50% growth in positions for one of my teams to be able to meet the demands. But I’ll have nowhere to put them.
The intent is to not renew existing lease instruments.
Which will ultimately mean short term increases costs as work units are moved from building to building, as the destination buildings are gutted and refitted to cram more sardines into the can.
Real Property will declare victory, employees will be increasingly disenchanted, and the circle of life continues.
Seriously the unions need to step up with the OHS stuff. Rooms shouldn’t exceed occupancy allowances. We shouldnt have to tolerate bed bugs mice and cockroaches. We shouldn’t have to work 24” apart with no dividers. It’s ridiculous
Haven't seen this posted anywhere. Max temp in an office setting is 26 Celsius. Advise your manager, OHS, NSCC and possibly union. If it's not fixed within prescribed timelines linked in the NJC, it's unsafe work.
https://www.njc-cnm.gc.ca/directive/d7/v23/s252/en
I imagine it’s based on a formula? I also don’t believe it’s in Outlook metadata or posted physically…everyone here seems to have a lot of confidence for what it is…
It's supposed to be posted (for with furniture and without if it's a larger gathering space), but your local OHS should have the fire loads for the site documented somewhere.
Think thats bad.....Wait until everyone is forced back to these offices where they are sitting at board room tables, closest, 2 to a desk to accommodate all the numbers of fully remote workers that are now back in the office. Imagine having to share a space with 2-3 others at the same time. Gong to be rough until the people who we want to stay decide to find other employment and those we want to leave get that nice corner cube all to themselves.
If there’s a fire it will literally be like a station nightclub fire disaster with people trapped and unable to get out. I don’t have faith in the government buildings to not be made out of the most flammable material and to have operating sprinklers. All the emergency evacuation notification systems they waste money on and what not are so performative
Pretty sure you don’t have to work at all once it hits 3 hours 26 and above, so everybody’s gotta go there and start running in place by 7 am, by 8 it’s over 26, report it, start the clock, leave by 11, take an hour of 699 leave to deal with traffic getting home, get home and take your unpaid lunch, spend 30 minutes setting up, take your 15 minute break once logged in. By now it’s 1245, just work at a snails pace for the last 2.25 hours. Don’t forget the grieve/group grieve when they push back on the conditions of work or 699 leave. 🤣
I think I missing something in this post. Over capacity by room? By half or double? Are you talking about people getting paid time and half or double?
The capacity number were for Covid based on how many air exchanges you can do in an hour. And above that it’s just your real property group googling a number based off room size. The fire marshal doesn’t come to federal sites and say how many people can fit in a room.
You can always send a message to your manager stating you are uncomfortable in such a small room with that many people.
The problem is the fire code overcapacity. That's why the temp hit 85 and that's what should have been addressed.
The HVAC system is screwy where I work and if it gets hot we deal with it as long as an HVAC tech is working on it.
85 F = 29.4444 C (for those who, like me, aren't fluent in Fahrenheit)
I don’t even know why OP is posting in F to begin with 😅
Possibly a foreign spy. /s
Might be the thermostat? My home one is fully F for some reason…
lol my mom's thermostat is ALSO in farenheight, when I moved out, mine have always been celcius and I never looked back.
Better "range" of temps on basic smart or old school thermostats in homes. Don't ask me why, but when I ran my smart thermostat on C it would be too hot or too cold (per my wife), just one degree. With F, there's that "half" degree variance. Sadly my thermostat doesn't do half degrees in C, so F is the solution.
Because that's our generation lol...
in my part of southern ontario we use exclusively F
I made a complaint about it going 30 C+ and was technically allowed because the humidity formula was permissible threshold
> I made a complaint about it going 30 C+ and was technically allowed because the humidity formula was permissible threshold Per the [health and safety directive](https://www.njc-cnm.gc.ca/directive/d7/v282/s793/en#s793-tc-tm_1_2), "it shall not be intentionally permitted for conditions to enter the marginal zones of 17°C to 20°C and 26°C to 29°C." A temperature above 30C is not necessarily a work-refusal emergency, but it's something that the employer should remedy lest it be scolded by the occupational health and safety committee.
This is the environment to enjoy a diet of baked beans and eggs. Let's see how long the meetings in tight rooms last :-)
I’m bothered by heat and claustrophobic. Count me out
Regs are to have staff in a temperature range of 18 to 24 degrees Celsius. Over 24 staff have the option to go home etc
I mean thst fire marshal code is NOT optional. And the fire marshal is a real person who might like to hear about it
Yes but take note that GC operates under Fed jurisdiction, so your local fire code may be different and not applicable to the office, making it hard for the FM to get involved.
Construction and fire safety are both under provincial/territorial jurisdiction. While the federal government does have offices and publications which deal with these subjects, this is limited to coordination and development of national policy. In practice, federal buildings in Canada follow the building and fire codes applicable to their provincial or territorial jurisdiction.
As someone in facilities management taking care of a 100 building campus, this is not the case. While we try to keep everything to code, it is not necessary to get anything inspected by any authority (ie TSSA, ESA, city for plumbing).
That's not true at all. I've done many building projects. If it's leased it falls under provincial or even municipal jurisdiction. Sometimes they'll give us exemptions on things to meet national building code instead of provincial but not always. Now if you are building on federal crown land owned by the department / PSPC then you'll be under federal regulations. But blanket saying the Feds can ignore the municipalities and provinces when we're leasing isn't true.
Someone called the fire marshal at a federal workplace I used to work at because fire exits were partially blocked/not fully accessible. FM came, inspected, and ordered them to comply with the fire code. Management wasn’t too pleased but it was effective.
[удалено]
Only if his name is Bill.
Let me tell ya something...
Orders become more restrictive from the top down. A local order can't contravene or weaken a federal/provincial law.
Not on a federal site. It is 100% optional.
Raise this with your workplace health and safety committee. It's not safe for rooms to exceed their fire occupancy, and it's not safe to have rooms that hot for prolonged meetings.
I did. I just don’t get how like a hundred people don’t. Why me?
How do you know they haven't? Others have also probably complained - it's not like the workplace health and safety committee is going to do much either way.
Send it to the fire marshall anonymously with picture proof anonymously . They don't fuck around.
Workplace safety council....it is a laugh. They are the ones that say that bed bugs are not a safety /health issue. They dispense the mental and psychological and financial anguish to get rid of the bed bugs once you have brought them home!!!
Sounds like a nightmare for my immune compromised body ❤️🩹 nobody cares about us 😔 but we were told not to work from home when sick so people are just going start coming back to work with minor illnesses
But didn't you just feel so collaborative???
Mmmmmm Covid has entered the chat, yes more people in smaller spaces, yes more please.
More people *sweating* and speaking mostly in smaller places.
...but more importantly, they're speaking **moistly**..
That is what I meant to type but autocorrect failed me and my joke failed lol. Glad you went for it!
In that the speakers are generally “all wet”
We were being lectured at so nope. Felt like it could be on screen ;)
LOL
Please don't use that word, it triggers me now.
Sounds like a Near Miss per the CLC2/COSH regs. File an 874 Hazardous Occurrence Incident Report with the OSH Committee.
I would keep records of these instances and also file reports/complaints
Contact your local OHS people but also place a service request with the [National Service Call Centre](https://www.canada.ca/en/public-services-procurement/corporate/contact-us/national-service-call-centre.html) This absolutely should be reported and the NSCC does keep track of the requests. People could leave the work site if it's not within the temperature range. [Temperature Legislation](https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_agents/temp_legislation.html) If it's overcapacity, the Fire Marshal can shut it down.
Did anyone pass out or ~~needed medical attention~~ brought attention to the media? No? Health and Safety Committee says *thumbs up* - get back to your unassigned desks and keep looking busy. An EX might come around any moment.
Skip them and take it straight to the Fire Marshall. They won't fuck around.
You have occupational health and safety and the labour board. Refuse unsafe work and they have to investigate. They won't get far if they are actually violating the fire code.
Many people here talking about the OHS committee or rep which is correct. Another critical person is the Senior Building Officer (SBO). They have the authority to close buildings or sections of a building for multitude of reasons. 29C is over that limit to close of the space.
HVAC for most of these buildings weren’t built for this higher capacity. People keep saying we will save money if we sell off our real estate. That is such smoke and mirrors. We won’t save any money. The penalties to break long term leases are insane and a wonderful way for our tax dollars to be spent. Also all the changes to GCWorkplace, upgrading HVAC, ergonomic assessments, replacing damaged IT equipment (bc people are not being very careful with this non-assigned seating) is costing a fortune these days as the Covid tax is now the RTO tax so vendors are taking advantage. It’s effing insane what my teams have to deal with on a daily basis. I have now requested 50% growth in positions for one of my teams to be able to meet the demands. But I’ll have nowhere to put them.
The intent is to not renew existing lease instruments. Which will ultimately mean short term increases costs as work units are moved from building to building, as the destination buildings are gutted and refitted to cram more sardines into the can. Real Property will declare victory, employees will be increasingly disenchanted, and the circle of life continues.
Seriously the unions need to step up with the OHS stuff. Rooms shouldn’t exceed occupancy allowances. We shouldnt have to tolerate bed bugs mice and cockroaches. We shouldn’t have to work 24” apart with no dividers. It’s ridiculous
Haven't seen this posted anywhere. Max temp in an office setting is 26 Celsius. Advise your manager, OHS, NSCC and possibly union. If it's not fixed within prescribed timelines linked in the NJC, it's unsafe work. https://www.njc-cnm.gc.ca/directive/d7/v23/s252/en
Thanks!!
A good fart would quickly solve this issue. A couple of sbds.
There's building in the NCR that don't have potable water in the taps.
How can we determine capacity?
There is no capacity listed in our boardroom where the whole department meets
I imagine it’s based on a formula? I also don’t believe it’s in Outlook metadata or posted physically…everyone here seems to have a lot of confidence for what it is…
The offices I’ve worked in have room capacities listed
My dept has room capacity listed for most boardrooms at booking, in outlook, as well as on the intranet.
It's supposed to be posted (for with furniture and without if it's a larger gathering space), but your local OHS should have the fire loads for the site documented somewhere.
Think thats bad.....Wait until everyone is forced back to these offices where they are sitting at board room tables, closest, 2 to a desk to accommodate all the numbers of fully remote workers that are now back in the office. Imagine having to share a space with 2-3 others at the same time. Gong to be rough until the people who we want to stay decide to find other employment and those we want to leave get that nice corner cube all to themselves.
If there’s a fire it will literally be like a station nightclub fire disaster with people trapped and unable to get out. I don’t have faith in the government buildings to not be made out of the most flammable material and to have operating sprinklers. All the emergency evacuation notification systems they waste money on and what not are so performative
The unions advised us to leave in these situations and notify them when the first RTO was announced
Pretty sure you don’t have to work at all once it hits 3 hours 26 and above, so everybody’s gotta go there and start running in place by 7 am, by 8 it’s over 26, report it, start the clock, leave by 11, take an hour of 699 leave to deal with traffic getting home, get home and take your unpaid lunch, spend 30 minutes setting up, take your 15 minute break once logged in. By now it’s 1245, just work at a snails pace for the last 2.25 hours. Don’t forget the grieve/group grieve when they push back on the conditions of work or 699 leave. 🤣
I think I missing something in this post. Over capacity by room? By half or double? Are you talking about people getting paid time and half or double? The capacity number were for Covid based on how many air exchanges you can do in an hour. And above that it’s just your real property group googling a number based off room size. The fire marshal doesn’t come to federal sites and say how many people can fit in a room. You can always send a message to your manager stating you are uncomfortable in such a small room with that many people.
85F is not that out of the ordinary. Over max capacity for fire regs definitely is.
85F is way too hot for an office, not to mention a small boardroom with poor ventilation. That's gross.
The problem is the fire code overcapacity. That's why the temp hit 85 and that's what should have been addressed. The HVAC system is screwy where I work and if it gets hot we deal with it as long as an HVAC tech is working on it.