State Workers May Sweat in the Dark

Iowa state employees may be sweating out the metro's heat wave. A state worker forwarded me this email that went out today warning workers life could get a little sticky. Here's the email sent by the Department of Administrative Services.

We have just been advised by Mid American Energy that today, June 23, 2009, will be a curtailment day.

Curtailment will begin at approximately 1:00pm and end at approximately 7:00pm.

The curtailment should be transparent and should not impact your operations. You should, however, take the usual precautions of periodically saving the work on computers or other equipment. Please remember there is always the possibility of brief power outages due to an unexpected loss of power from Mid American.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact DAS Customer Service Center at 242-5120.

Here's another one that, I think, encourages workers to wear fewer clothes. Or maybe it's just the heat affecting my judgement.

With the high outside heat and humidity, the Department of Administration has received a number of building temperature complaints. The chilled water system that cools buildings on the Capitol Complex was designed to a standard “design day” maximum capacity for heat and humidity, which is typically exceeded a few days each year.

With the forecast for continued high heat and humidity this week, it is likely the outside temperatures will continue to exceed the system design and the buildings may be uncomfortable. We will continue to do our best to maintain internal building temperatures within the summer time temperature policy (78 degrees +/- 3 degrees), but suggest you also dress for warm weather. Computers and lights add to the heat load of the building, so please be sure to put your computer into sleep mode (or turn it off, if IT allows) and turn off the lights when leaving your area.