Record-breaking heat hit the UK last week as part of a wider European heatwave, prompting the Met Office to issue its first ever extreme heat weather red warning. It said, “illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy and not just in high-risk groups”.
With several weeks of summer left to go, you might be wondering how to cope at work when the mercury rises. Your brain kicks into summer mode, but with no pool nearby to cool off in and spreadsheets to complete (and no sign of a company-wide memo arriving telling everyone to knock off early), it can be really difficult to stay focused and get the job done when it is sweltering outside.
Here are a few ways to stay cool, and get the job done.
The office may be your best bet on warm days – easy access to air conditioning can keep you cool all day long (in between commutes). If you’re at home, work in the coolest room and shut any curtains and blinds – this helps keep the sun at bay and will deliver a cooler temperature in the evening too.
If you often feel fuzzy and find it hard to think when it’s very warm, meaning you find yourself staring at your screen completely unable to focus, it may be because you’re dehydrated. Row back on coffee and tea and instead make sure you’re sipping water and cold drinks. Ditch heavy meals: lighter, cold meals, like salads and fruit are your friends in the heat.
Suits? Forget about it. Light, loose clothes made from natural fibres are all you’re going to want to wear. Put anything polyester away until temperatures reach low double digits again. You’ll thank us.
A 2018 study of Boston college students found that students who were in non-air-conditioned buildings had slower reaction times, and 13% lower performance on basic arithmetic tests, and nearly a 10% reduction in the number of correct responses per minute. The good news is that we can get used to heat – it just takes time for our bodies to adjust.
If you can sufficiently concentrate enough to think about a career switch, we have three roles worth looking at below, as well as plenty more on the London Economic Job Board.
Graphcore has created a completely new processor, the Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), specifically designed for artificial intelligence, and is now looking for a DFT Engineer. You will work with the silicon team to define DFT specifications and chip test interface and develop and implement DFT architecture and infrastructure. You will need knowledge about industrial standards and practices in DFT, including ATPG, JTAG, MBIST and trade-offs between test quality and test time, as well as experience on developing DFT specifications and driving DFT architecture and methods for designs. Graphcore offers competitive salary, a generous pension scheme and to support your well-being it provides health insurance, life cover and an employee assistance programme. Apply now.
Bloomberg’s Regulatory Reporting Services [BRRS] is a business that caters to a broad set of global clients. You will join the BRRS team as a Regulatory Reporting Product Manager with a focus on the regulated entities (ARM & APA) and will have direct responsibility for defining, developing, testing and executing the business development of BRRS’s regulatory reporting solutions. You will have a good comprehension of regulatory obligations in the reporting space, e.g. MIFIR, among others. You’ll need over 10 years’ of experience working within the financial services/regulatory environment, strong project management skills, excellent data analysis skills and an ability to work with data and turn it into information and operational insights. A real passion for building positive relationships with internal colleagues to ensure the successful build and execution of the product is also required. Apply now.
As a Software Development Engineer you will be part of an open, collaborative, and innovative environment and will work on a platform responsible for the money of millions of people. 10x Banking’s tech stack is modern, and it is not shy about using the right tool for each job. You’ll have a background in building highly scalable systems, as well as great communication and organisational skills, a motivation to achieve results, eagerness to learn and, of course, a passion for innovation. You will also need a deep understanding of good practices in software development, experience with event streaming technologies and you will have worked in highly distributed, low latency and high availability systems and consider constraints and trade-offs when making architectural decisions. Apply now.
