As the UK experiences yet another heatwave<\/a>, it is perhaps time for employers to consider copying mainland Europe by writing the whole of August off.<\/p>\n Maybe you think I\u2019m being dramatic, but thanks to global warming and climate change, these extreme weather events are becoming less the exception and more the norm, with the Met Office repeatedly issuing stark warnings<\/a>. <\/p>\n It\u2019s particularly difficult to navigate when you\u2019re trying to work. If you\u2019re logging on remotely,<\/a> you don\u2019t have the luxury of cool air \u2013 and even those in air-conditioned offices still have to face hellish commutes on crammed public transport.<\/p>\n The UK has done little to adapt to these warmer climes \u2013 and, no, I\u2019m not talking about Ed Miliband\u2019s net zero policies<\/a>, the debate over whether they\u2019ll do anything to help with what is a global problem, and whether we can afford them in the midst of a toxic economic brew<\/a>. I\u2019m talking about the way we live. <\/p>\n Despite the dominance of the service economy and the preponderance of office-based jobs, there are still large swathes of people who don\u2019t just work in homes without energy-guzzling air-con units, but instead spend their days outside. <\/p>\n The government wants to kick off a construction boom to boost a faltering economy<\/a>, with hundreds of thousands of new homes and infrastructure projects planned \u2013 that is, if they can find the builders to do the work. There is a problem at a time when hostility towards using migrant labour is high, and the Home Office is making it increasingly difficult. <\/p>\n Wouldn\u2019t construction be a more attractive career choice if people knew they wouldn\u2019t have to work in the baking heat? I know, this is triggering to people who say that in their day, they would have \u201chappily\u201d worked a 12-hour shift in the sun or whatever other weather the UK could concoct without complaint. <\/p>\n But the fact is that extreme heat kills people<\/a>, and has been doing so with increasing regularity. The government estimates that there were 1,311 deaths associated with the four heat episodes during summer 2024. They were mostly older people, long past retirement age, but the point remains. Remember that old No\u00ebl Coward number about only mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the midday sun? He was clearly on to something… <\/p>\n Now, I jest when I suggest that the whole nation should shut down in August to counter this, as is often the case in France. Half the CBI\u2019s membership would probably collapse with heat exhaustion from fulminating with rage at the very idea. We don\u2019t want that. And this year saw the first heatwave blasting us in June anyway. <\/p>\n![\"Remember](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/iStock-82642661.jpeg\")
Remember that old No\u00ebl Coward number about only mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the midday sun? He was clearly on to something… (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n