Back in the Dark Ages (early 1970's) when there was no air conditioning in offices, of course, the men in the office had to wait for permission to remove their jackets when there was a heatwave (yes, we did occasionally get them then)! For the females, sleeveless dresses or blouses were a no-no, short sleeves at the very least and preferably long sleeves. Won't tell you where this was, as I'd have to "dispose" of you if I did.
I worked in offices during the 1980's and apart from one which was a big modern building I don't remember there being any air con either. There was a guy in the one of these offices who used to keep checking the thermometer and once when it was reading over 80 degrees, that he said that we should all walk out 'cause we don't legally have to work, we never did we just opened up a few more windows and we did have a couple of fans but they used to blow the paperwork everywhere (Now that's old school)! Another place was an extremely old building, our workspace was surrounded by small offices where all the caseworkers and other deities worked and these offices had the luxury of large windows - we didn't and there was quite a few people whose personal hygiene left a lot to be desired so you can imagine how unpleasant an environment is was on a really hot day! One day I was saying how lucky those were who had their own offices cause they don't have to put up with the smell. I'll never forget Carol who was a personal assistant who spent a lot of time in her boss's office told me that it wasn't necessarily better as they weren't necessarily any more clean and sweeter and it's not just the armpits I gingerly said "should I be asking you what you mean?" and she said yeah the bloke's got a sweaty crotch! He used to keep some of this files under the table and when Carol had to retrieve them she'd be knocked for six. Are you sure it's his crotch? Yep she said lol!!! I asked no more questions!
