https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaghan_people

every time someone parrots about hard-wired aspects of gender differences, etc, remember that human-controlled social behavioural ranges are immense

The irony, of course, is that you’re losing productivity (research shows office workers are more effective when they’re a little hotter than they want, than when they’re equally colder than they want, so one really should err on the higher side) so your’e actually creating a situation where your business is quantitatively worse in order to make it appear better.

I once called out to a partner to ask her if she really showered at that temperature or if the lever had been bumped. She stuck her hand in and said that is was lovely, whilst looking at me in surprise as I flared lobster red all over from the (perceived) extreme heat of the water on my own skin.

I have often said, only half in jest, that in many office buildings the climate control system has two settings: too hot and too cold.

I often find air conditioning set to what any sensible person ought to consider ridiculous levels. For instance, one hotel in Tennessee where I stayed when I was visiting in October had the air conditioning on and thermostats set to 60 degrees F–and housekeeping staff were evidently instructed to return the setting to that level during the day (I would raise my thermostat setting in the evening, leave it there in the morning, and come back to find it changed back to the lower setting). Where I live (New Hampshire), October is the beginning of heating season, and it is against the law here for a landlord to set the thermostat in a residential rental unit below 65 degrees F–a tenant can legally withhold rent under such circumstances.

I live without AC at home–under 20th century climate, I’d only need it a few nights a year. That’s true of most houses here: if your house in New Hampshire has central air, it was probably built after 1985 (a few houses have been retrofit, but you can only do that if your heating system is forced hot air, which most houses around here aren’t), and even many newer houses don’t have it.

Related to your point, buildings and houses use to be built with air and vapor porous materials. No one cared too much about air changes because energy was cheap. My 1949 house had no insulation but was heated with coal, which probably blasted out so much heat as to keep the shrubs near the house warm. With the 1970s energy shocks we started adding more insulation and weatherstripping to save energy. Some people inadvertently installed vapor barriers in the wrong places, which in some cases led to moisture damage, mold and mildew. I think most people are more careful about vapor retarders now, but the International Energy Conservation Code now follows ASHRAE and calls for continuous air barriers in most climate zones. Commercial and institutional buildings without operable windows are totally reliant on mechanical systems for fresh air, just as the many windowless rooms are for light. How habitable will these buildings be if we go through brownouts, or just suffer the sort of benign neglect mentioned above?

Also heat/cold tolerance is strongly mediated by fashion. In many offices men have to wear a suit and tie, and that means they are more prone to overheating. The fashion sense of our culture has little sense of energy efficiency. At home it reverses, as I can tolerate a few extra degrees by removing my shirt, but my wife would consider it improper to do the same. So cultural norms which can be sexist themselves have an effect.

Often, building cooling systems are operated in “on-off” mode due to failed control systems, the AC running either full blast or not at all, with full blast being the default. The energy wasted in this regime is large, of course, not to mention the discomfort of lower-metabolism occupants. Building owners who won’t do the maintenance pay for that carelessness in many ways.

Even when there are functioning thermostatic controls, there is war between the warm- and cold-natured occupants over who sets the temperature. Pity the building engineer caught in the middle of those conflicts! The difference between comfortable and uncomfortable is barely 2 deg. F for most people in sedentary occupations, with people all over the scale as to where their comfort spot is.

The least aggravation comes in buildings where management sets the cooling at a middling figure like 74 F and occupants are told, “That’s it: live with it.” There will be grumbling from people who like it chilly, but they will get used to it, especially if you can get them to admit they would not be willing to pay to keep their own homes as cold as they want it at work in the summertime.