If you’re dreading summer on the job this year, you’re not alone. Every month last summer was the most scorching on world record. Trapped under heat domes, dozens of metro areas busted their longest streaks ever of highs over 100 degrees. Phoenix afternoons were over 110 for a month straight. On asphalt yards nearly hot enough to melt, bonus-hungry managers forced workers to keep up the usual pace. The results were lethal. In 2022, the latest year for which we have data, 43 U.S. workers lost their lives to heat on the job.
Companies cheaping out on fans is mind boggling. I know it’s because the desk jockies in their air conditioned offices don’t understand what it feels like to suffer and they’re too stupid to understand how unsafe the heat is, but they’re so fucking cheap! Holy shit I could outfit my whole team’s work area with total air circulation for, like, $400. Save lives, make us more productive, barely spend any money, but nooooo they want to squeeze blood from stone and refuse to do fucking anything without the workers uniting against them.
It’s the shortsightedness that is the real problem here. Idiot managers are looking for the immediate cost savings and not understanding how much it hurts them, almost immediately down the line.
These people need to experience an actual day of work.