On Jun 6, 4:30*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Jun 6, 3:56*pm, Evan wrote:









On Jun 6, 3:46*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:

On Jun 6, 10:49*am, mcp6453 wrote:

My office is in a cubicle. There is a draft on the back of my neck. The only
vent in my cube or within 5 feet of it are closed. The walls on the cube are 8
feet tall.

I've tried a cigarette lighter, my hand, and a suspended Kleenex to find the
darn breeze so that I can block it. The temperature is not bad; it's the draft.
What creative ideas do you guys have for finding the source of air flow? (The
HVAC guy couldn't tell me where it's coming from. I think the building has weird
air currents flowing in it.)

If they will allow it, get some Smoke Matches from Grainger.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/Smoke-Matches-3KLK4

I used them to check the airflow in my attic.

Be aware of nearby smoke detectors. Maybe have the HVAC guy nearby and
let your manager know first so that no one is surprised by the smoke.

ROFL...

The smoke detectors you can see in the office are only
part of what you have to worry about, commercial buildings
also have smoke detectors inside the HVAC duct work as
well...

Definitely not something for an employee to do to try and
locate a "draft"... *Possibly not even for the OP's employer
to do if they are only a tenant in the building...

The "best cost": or "least cost" option here is for the OP
to request a new desk assignment from the office
manager...- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Requesting a new desk assignment can be more costly than one might
imagine.

First off, there has to be a someplace to swap to, someplace that
doesn't impact work flow. If there were an issue in my office, moving
to a new location would be next to impossible since I'm part of a team
that interacts with each other, face to face, constantly throughout
the day. There are no "spare" offices anywhere near mine. In fact,
there aren't even any open offices on my floor. I know all about
"global teams" (I've been on a few) and I know the saying that "the
world is flat", but if our team wasn't grouped within shouting
distance we would be much less efficient. The same goes for other
teams in our office, so simply swapping offices with someone who might
not mind the draft wouldn't be cost effective in the long run.

Phone and computer access *might* be as easy as swapping a few plugs
in a closet or it might involve much more, depending on LAN
configurations, phone numbers that ring on more than one phone, access
to shared servers, and location, location, location. Parts of our
office building - within the same company - have different prefixes
for phone numbers and a move from one side of the building to another
would mean a change of phone numbers, which leads to new business
cards, letterhead, etc., all of which have both a direct and indirect
monetary impact.

All I'm saying is that it may not be easy or even cost effective to
move the employee just to avoid a draft.

Umm, yeah, it is... Unless your employer is using rather old
and outdated equipment... Contacting the landlord or HVAC
technicians over a "draft" which will never be able to be corrected
because it has been a feature of that space since its last
physical remodel all over one employee's "comfort" is expensive...
There are required ventilation room air changes per hour, bringing
in enough outside air and having it preconditioned to offset the
CO2 being given off by the workers and also the capacity to
quickly remove smoke from the building via using some of the
same fans... You are now discussing an engineering problem
which would be more than the HVAC technician adjusting
a louver on a vent grille...

If you are talking an "office" that means you are an employee of
a certain level of prestige, rather than desk/workspace... An office
has four walls (floor to ceiling), a ceiling and a lockable door that
no one can reach over from the outside and open...
A desk/workspace may not have those features...

If moving from one side of the building to the other at your employer
means changing phone numbers those sections of the building
are either served by entirely separate phone systems or the system
is old enough to require physically altering the wiring to accomplish
the move...

Moving someone from one work station to any other in offices with
equipment installed in the past 10 years is a matter of port swapping
within the phone system dynamically using the system software
without making any hardware or wiring changes... Computer ? LOL
most people's office computers won't allow them to save or alter
files locally and they are merely accessing a set of working and
personal folders on a network drive so the computer itself is not
moved nor requires any changes beyond perhaps reconfiguring
the employee's user account to allow them to log on from their
new desk location...

A workgroup that is assigned the same project need not work
all within the exact same physical space, yeah, it is very
convenient when they can, but this is not always possible,
that is why there are conference spaces for small group
meetings in most office areas... If your team brought in a
new staff member right now, they would not relocate other
employees which are not a part of that group from the surrounding
cubicles to make space for that one person, they would get
a desk somewhere...

You should feel somewhat lucky if your office is at 100%
population, that means that your employer is either doing
really well, or could mean that you are headed for troubled
times ahead... Either way, by not having any empty expansion
space anywhere in your working unit, whomever is in charge
of space utilization is not doing their job properly because there
is no way to add someone to any given project without relocating
someone else who isn't working on that project...

Most employers also tend to have empty cubicles around
for when traveling employees are in town, an employee that
normally telecommutes has to be present in the office for
some reason and for itinerant projects like tax season/auditing
type projects where outside agents need to do work on the
premises without closing off access to the conference space
to all the other employees while that work takes place...