h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I can put up with a lot if the working conditions are reasonable. The worst place I ever had to work was a windowless room where software was tested on small telephone exchanges. The heating system in the building didn't work very well, so one area was boiling hot while another area was just comfortable. People in my area would come to work in sweaters and heavy coats, then strip down to T-shirts. In summer, the test area could get so hot that people were allowed to come in at 6a.m. and leave at noon, because it got too hot to work.

The company spent a lot of money refurbishing the area. While it was being done, they moved us to the top floor of a building on top of a nearby hill. The conditions weren't ideal - cables trailing all over the floor, etc. - but the area was nice, light, airy and spacious, with big windows giving a view of the Coventry city centre skyline. Before we moved back I was given the job of measuring the furniture and equipment so that the powers-that-be could work out where everything went. Well, somebody somewhere screwed up. The new area was too small. In some cases, there wasn't the legally required distance (6ft, I think) between desks. The only windows were less than a foot high, and right at the top of the walls where they were virtually impossible to open. The air-conditioning didn't work. The air was so dry that people could blow some components just by picking them up. And it still got hot in the summer. Morale plummeted and we lost about half the staff in about 6 months.

The problems made me wary of windowless areas, but I have since found that the main problems were probably the cramped conditions and poor climate control. I have worked in a windowless office since then, without problems, because we had room to move and reasonable climate control.