16 cheap and creative ways to stay warm when your office is freezing

Jon Snow

The freezing office is a phenomenon much bemoaned by workers. It ranks as the No. 1 employee complaint on various workplace polls.

The theory is that it's often brought about by the disparity between men and women's body temperatures. While indoor temperature standards have been based since the 1960s on the preferences of the typical man, women tend to produce less body heat and therefore run cooler than their male colleagues — and so the suffering begins.

When Business Insider decided to test this theory out amongst our coworkers two summers ago, we indeed found that more women than men reported that the office was too cold (58 women versus 27 men).

But arctic conditions have grown more dire since then, and now a great majority of the people in the New York office are afflicted.

Since any attempted fixes from the building have been short-term at best — "I suffer in pain at the cruel hands of the land owners!" one staffer laments — my coworkers have become the ultimate resource for thawing remedies.

If you also suffer from one of the most pervasive and destructive complaints among office-dwellers, then perhaps these tips could work for you, too:

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Cashmere sweaters

Cashmere sweaters are excellent way to keep warm in a freezing office, says Matthew DeBord, a senior correspondent who covers transportation at Business Insider.

"Personally I like Lands' End because my mother buys them for me — but they're also lightweight and a good value for the money," he says. "They're nice to throw on over a T-shirt, and I always bring one when I fly for the cold climate on the plane."

Inexpensive hoodies

"I just keep a hoodie at my desk," says Andy Kiersz, a quant reporter at Business Insider. "If it's cool out when I leave work, I wear it out. If not, I leave it here."

Kiersz says he prefers being too cold over being too hot. "You can always add a layer, but you can't always take off a layer," he notes.

Kiersz often turns to a light-cotton sweatshirt he bought from Brooklyn-discounter Telco for $20.

Richard Feloni, a senior strategy reporter at Business Insider, also prefers to go the less-expensive route. He says that, on a particularly chilly-office day, he jetted down the block to Old Navy, where he spent no more than $20 on a hoodie.

"The unvarnished truth — I wanted the cheapest possible option. Something that wouldn't look stupid but something I wouldn't mind losing if it were stolen," he says.

Denim jackets

"I usually throw a denim jacket on before I leave my house in the morning because I know it'll be cold and denim jackets are cute and pretty warm and don't look too unprofessional in the office," Amanda McKelvey says.

She recommends a classic denim jacket from the Gap.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider