Science Finds Out Why Women Are Always Freezing At Work

Are you a woman who’s constantly cold at work and can’t wait to warm up? Well, science has finally found out who’s to blame.

Do you often have to put on an extra layer at work and absolutely hate it? Do you also happen to anxiously wait for your work day to end so you can go home because the room temperature is absolutely unbearable?

Chances are, you're a woman. A woman who chatters her way through the workday, wondering why in heaven the office is an ice box.

Read: Scorching Temps Don't Bother These Animals Keeping Their Cool

New research tells you who to blame for your chilly 9-to-5: men.

A study authored by a group of individuals from the Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands looks into the environmental issues over-cooling offices lead to. In an interview with The New York Times, study co-author Boris Kingma stated, "In a lot of buildings, you see energy consumption is a lot higher because the standard is calibrated for men's body heat production.”

Buildings are known to use the "empirical thermal comfort model" to regulate their temperatures, which doesn’t seem to suit women, since they have far lower metabolic rates compared to men.

The temperatures in this mechanism are set according to a man’s body and as a result, females appear to be more uncomfortable in the office environment and will often be seen huddled up with a coffee in their hand.

"If it is too warm, the behavior thing you can do is take off a piece of clothing, but you can only do that so much," Kingma added. "You could also say let’s keep it a very cold building and women should just wear more clothes."

Also: Why Is Watching Someone Shiver Contagious?

While individualized temperature controls might be the eventual answer to the problem at hand, for now, the only solution seems to be putting on more layers and not wearing those summer sandals you'd absolutely love to wear to work – if the office wasn't a freezer.