Sleeping on the job... in a good way.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I just woke up from a lunchtime snoozer and boy, do I ever feel refreshed. I take 30 minutes out of the day for lunch but it never takes that long to eat so today, as I’ll do about once a week, I just closed my door, stretched out on the floor and caught a quick 10. Now I’m back to peak operating efficiency and it didn’t cost my employer a penny. In fact, he’ll benefit from it.

There was a guy I worked with years back that was office famous for taking a nap every work day. He even kept a pillow in his desk drawer. You knew at noon not to knock if his door was shut and then he’d open it at 1:00, rub the sleep from his eyes and get started again. Darn productive fella too.

I see others up and down the hall occasionally shut their door around noon. I’ve no idea if they nap, make some private calls or simply want some alone time but see no reason why the practice wouldn’t be somewhat widespread. So, I’m curious…anyone else “Do a nooner?”

2

I do sometimes. If I’m just nodding off at my computer not getting anything done, I’ll take a quick 20 minute power nap. Like you, I’ll just stretch out on the floor. Usually it’s exactly what I need.

3

I’d love to do it, but I don’t have a private office. I suppose that I could curl up under my desk, but I think my boss’d frown on that.

I’ve seen people do it in their cars on their lunch. With the weather being as sunny and warm as it’s been this summer, though, I never did.

4

My office is way too noisy, plus I’m not a napper. Back in FL, one of my cube-mates would sleep at lunch. Sometimes he’d even snore. At least he didn’t drool…

5

Don’t work for Intel. They tell you first day that napping is justification for immediate termination, even if you were up till 3 am working the night before. One of the reasons I didn’t like the place, not that I slept.

someone who worked for me once napped every afternoon which was fine - he did twice as much stuff the rest of the time as anyone else.

6

Where my husband works they have a “quiet room” for napping during breaks. He uses it almost every day for a nap; of course he works the 4am to 3pm shift so he needs it!

7

I’ve been a lifetime “power napper” and everyone that knows about it will never cease to make fun of me about it. :slight_smile: School lecture or work, it didn’t matter. Always 10-15 minutes, then I would be fully alert. I was officially written up and yelled at at my previous job, but it never affected by performance reviews. Of course, 99% of the time it’s due to the shift work, those 9pm-7am or 11pm-8am shifts, and I would just doze off in the middle of something. My workload was never adversely affected, I always had everything done, it’s just something I needed to do.

Of course, I suppose I should’ve taken use of the office sofa, however it was usually a good distance away.

8

Oooo, the nap.

I loves me some nap. Here’s something I do: I have a high backed chair, and I sit in my office with my back to the door. I’ll pull out a “work book” (programming book, stats book, maybe a paper) and put it on my lap, and lean it on the desk.

Then, I fall asleep, but it looks like I’m reading. And it’s not so deep that I can’t wake up from a knock on the door.

I had a guy come like a week ago and go, “were you just sleeping?”

“No”

“Your screen saver is on, jack ass.”

Also, I have an office mate. Sometimes while dozing off, I’ve done the “nap jerk” thing. There’s an unspoken code with office mates, though. You don’t notice their web surfing, their 90 minute lunches, their personal phone calls or their office habits and they don’t notice yours.

Also, sometimes I’ve woken up suddenly thinking, “did I just fart?” I sit there wondering if I should say, “excuse me.” Sometimes, the evidence is clear that I did fart.

People who don’t nap don’t get this: a 15 minute mid-afternoon nap can make the whole afternoon more productive as a whole. We don’t really have a napping policy here, but we have a VERY laissez-faire boss. I’ve discussed napping in the abstract with him, but never actually been confronted during a nap.

My overall productivity is HIGH, though. Once that’s established, it’s hard for a boss to argue with your methods. If he does, you just go Jack on him, “you sleep under the blanket of security I provide and then question the means with which I provide it.”

9

I must be odd because taking a short nap just makes me more tired. Just when it starts to get good you have to get up and go back to work…blah.

10

I can’t do a short nap. After 10-15 minutes, I’m just drifting off. I need an hour, minimum - and I prefer two.

But I’m pregnant. :wink:

11

I used to do the lunchtime nap in the car, many years ago. It was quite refreshing. I can’t do it now, or I would.

Why can’t I?

(1) My office has a pass-through window to my boss’s office, and she is the loudest person I’ve ever known. I can’t sleep if someone’s talking loudly.

(2) People are always interrupting me during my lunch. Even if I closed the door, they’d either walk on in, or buzz me on the phone/intercom.

(3) I don’t drive to work - I ride mass transit. (But I have been known to fall asleep on the train either to or from work, if it’s not too noisy).