Temperatures reached record highs this week. Here's why you still need a sweater in the office

This week, temperatures soared past 100 degrees in many parts of the country. But if you work in an office, chances are the temperatures indoors felt the exact opposite.

The short-sleeved shirt you were sweating in on the commute could have you searching for blankets and googling 'space heaters for sale' by lunch.

Although the heat outside is setting records, the summer cold front in the office is not a new phenomenon.

When air conditioning became standard in buildings in the 1950s, offices started "overcooling," explains Salvatore Basile, the author of "Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything." Building owners wanted to show they offered the comfort of air conditioning, but sometimes they offered too much of it.

"One building exhibitor published an advertisement stating that people got sick after spending time in his air conditioning," said Basile, "just to prove how cold his building was."

But why is the office still so cold today? Experts have various answers: different bodies, and sometimes, genders, react to temperatures differently; the temperature model used is decades old; and office air-conditioning is designed for a more formal dress code.

Then there's the belief chilly people might just get more work done. Mark Zuckerberg famously kept Facebook, now Meta, at an uncomfortable 59 degrees to boost productivity, former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandburg noted in her 2013 book, "Lean In."