Feast or Famine

I work in an office which has some problems…okay a LOT of problems. It’s an old nursing home that was closed in 2006 and was vacant for 2 years…besides the ghosts of course. Prior to this our office was in an old Victorian house that had a ton of problems of its own and we were happy to leave. Looking back though, we should have fought to stay.

The first issue we had was cleanliness and mold. The building is very rarely cleaned by the staff that should be cleaning and mold grows way more frequently than it should. All of the staff has experienced sinus issues over the last 4 years but we are told that we are crazy. They have had people come in and test the air and they tell us everything is fine even though we never see the reports. They tested for a second time last year and finally a mold remediation company came in to clean…but remember, everything is fine.

For the last 2 weeks it has been a balmy 80 degrees and I have even had to purchase a few short sleeve options because I refuse to tear apart my basement looking for my summer clothes. We complain that it’s too hot and our cries go unheard so we open windows and hope that the 30 degree weather outside will bring us some relief. I’d complain to our slumlord but he pays my salary so I digress.

Today I walked in to the building at 8am and wanted to head right back to my car. It was so cold that I refused to remove my coat. Luckily I dress in layers since I never know what I am in for. We all assumed that since we complained how hot it was that we were now being punished. All morning everyone complained as we typed with fingerless gloves stuffed with hand warmers while sitting on top of our space heaters. I finally left to get some soup and blast the heat in my car while enjoying my heated seats. I didn’t want to come back but I did and I had an email update on the situation.

It turns out that after several departments in the building complained someone finally looked in to the problem and our boiler was not working. In addition to having no baseboard heat our ceiling vents have been blasting us with A/C all morning. A little while later I received another update that something shorted so there is no hot air and someone had left to go get a new part. I swear that we are like the Boy Who Cried Wolf over here. They never believe us when we say it is too hot or cold or muggy or dry. This place is a disaster and I wish there was another place for us to go. Instead I dress for any possible weather scenario and hope for the best.