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Did I do the right thing?

ghall

ghall

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 27, 2006
3,771
1
Rhode Island
Okay, so my school has 2 floors, and I spend a lot of time on the second floor, and there it gets really hot, and it's hard to focus on work. Finally, I've just got fed up with it and wrote an email to my principal about it. Here it is:

I'm concerned for the health and productivity of my peers and I because of the temperature in the upstairs commons area, as well as the energy efficiency of over-heating the school. The heat is usually turned up way too high, which causes exhaustion and makes it harder to concentrate. I believe that countless hours of possible work time have been wasted due to this exhaustion. I also fear that the heat will cause illness due to the cold and flu viruses that thrive in the cold weather we've been having, and I even fear the possibility of mild dehydration. It's also an insane waste of resources, I'm not sure what kind of heating system the school has, but it is most wasteful to have the heat up so high.

I request that you forward this information to whoever is in charge of regulating the temperature in our building, and ask that this issue be resolved for the good of our school community.

Thank you,
(my name)
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Did I do the right thing, or should I just have lived with it? What do you think I should expect as a response? Don't I have the right and obligation to bring to the attention of the principal anything I feel is harmful to the student body?

Anyway, I'm not sure if I should have done this, but there's no going back now.
 
Why the hell are you obsessing over this, if the principle objects you you raising this with him/her then they're clearly a twunt, my school's headteacher would happily discuss anything with students and always respond to any enquiry written or digital.
 
If it bothers you then yes you did the right thing.

I would've just said "it is far too hot".
 
I don't think it is a bad thing to bring this up to the Principal, though my only criticism of the e-mail is it sounds(reads) a bit accusatory to me.
 
If nobody mentions that it's too hot then nothing is going to get done. If your headteacher doesn't visit that part of the building they might not even be aware of the problem. It's good to raise any problems you have so that they can be resolved. The most likely outcome is that the heating will get turned down and everyone will be happier.
 
Damn, I was so hoping for another ghall life crisis. This left me a bit cold.
 
ghall said:
So would I. But I accidentally hit the send button before I could cool down (literally :p) and..now yeah.
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I always compose emails with the send to field blank just so I don't accidentally send them and always give myself at least 10 minutes break before reviewing any important emails. Although this wouldn't have fallen under important.

ghall said:
The girlfriend is going well, therefore I have nothing to report. :p
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She seems quite talented.
 
I'd have spoken to the janitorial staff, see if they appreciated the problem at all - and then, if you got nothing from the people who's responsibility the heating/AC is, then go to the top.

To put it another way, were I the Principle and I got an email like that, my initial response would be 'speak to the frickin' Janitor, I don't know how the boilers work!'

But - full credit to you for seeing an issue, and not just bitching and moaning quietly - but trying to do something about it.

Doug
 
ghall said:
Sorry to disappoint. :p

The girlfriend is going well, therefore I have nothing to report. :p
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I disagree. There's always something to report; the question is whether or not you're willing to try hard enough to find it. :D

And I probably would have either gotten "The temperature is fine, there's nothing wrong with it," or a "We know, and it is too difficult to set/is unable to be set(this was the case in the music room - it used to be the library and the temp was hardwired into a temperature that was appropriate for books, which was wayy too high, esp considering music classes kept the doors shut and the library kept them open - eventually either we adapted or they called in someone to change it, i don't remember which.)
 
ghall said:
Sorry to disappoint. :p

The girlfriend is going well, therefore I have nothing to report. :p
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She's putting up with your insecurity about writing two paragraphs to your principal? Her patience must be saintly :eek:

(I think you just missed the attention :p)
 
xUKHCx said:
If it bothers you then yes you did the right thing.

I would've just said "it is far too hot".
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Haha, agreed.

I've sent e-mails like this before to my principle (seriously):

"Hello Mr. Swisher. Just writing to tell you that some classes don't have a good regulation of temperature. I hope you can somehow get this corrected, or at least made it a little better. Anyways, see you in the halls."
 
To me, it comes across as really making a mountain out of a molehill. Why did you feel it was necessary to write a long, fairly formal email? It sounds like you're begging someone to pay attention to you. Couldn't you have just walked into the main office and asked someone to check on the heat, as it seemed too warm?
 
hardly seems like an issue...I'm boiling all day....I just sit near a window, if not, then I sweat a little....or go to the bathroom, and put some water on a face to cool down
 
I can understand what you're going through. In my school, all the buildings that were built in the 1780's are far too hot while the buildings they finished about five years ago are too cold, and there's a locked box over the thermostat.

I have some disagreements about how you approached the situation. Whenever you write a complaint letter, you always begin them with complimenting the other party on what they've done right and what you like about them, then complain, and wrap it up with another compliment and stating that you hope they will get up and do something about the problem.

Also, why not just talk to him in person? Sending an e-mail seems even too formal.
 
Don't worry about it. Your email is fine, and you have a valid complaint. If you principal is a decent sort of person, they will have maintenance look into it, and if it's a problem, see if they can fix it. Just an FYI, my office is in a high school that is 7 years old, and the maintenance people are constantly having to mess withe the heating/cooling. My office is nice toasty warm in the winter, and the room next door is 5-10 degrees cooler. In the summer my office gets so cold I could comfortably wear a winter coat. In fact, sometimes I open the window to warm up :p. Usually a call to the appropriate people gets my office warmed up. I'm perfectly happy with a 75-80 degree office in the summer.

Keep in mind, though, that if the fix is going to be complete replacement of the heating/cooling system, it may not happen any time soon.
 
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