posted on Monday, October 16, 2006 1:43 PM
by
Lou Michels
Corporate Nap Time?
The October issue of the Harvard Business Review contains an interview by a Harvard Medical School professor noting that lack of sleep among employees should be a major concern for company leadership. The article reports that many workers are overscheduled so there is no way for them to get a good night's sleep between work days. This impairs efficiency and is a health and safety concern as well. Hmmm--I wonder how long the study took to determine this obvious point?
I don't work for Anonymous Law Firm (plug that into a search engine and see what you come up with), so I haven't seen our associates sleeping overnight in the bathrooms (yet), but I can empathize with the lack of sleep issue. Commenting on the HBR article, one writer noted that his cross-country flight was four hours late, but he was certain, as am I, that all of the business travelers on the plane made it into the office on time the next day. And it's not just lengthy plane trips -- general commuting times have increased dramatically in the last two decades causing people to get up earlier and earlier to make it to work on time.
The HBR article recommends that companies develop "corporate sleep policies" that would prohibit working what are described as "truly excessive" hours or coming onto work after taking a redeye flight. The suggested policy would also contain an education component to talk to employees about the need for sleep, how it relates to their health, and the effects of alcohol and caffeine on restful slumber.
This, of course, is the nanny state, or the nanny corporation, carried to an extreme. Most of the people I know are well aware of the effects of sleeplessness and how to manage their work around it. All of us in this business realize that there are going to be periods where late hours are necessary and you simply won't get as much sleep as you would like to have. Besides, I can see a certain element of any workforce telling itself that it's macho to ignore the corporate sleep guidelines and get a reputation for being able to work half-zonked. Not what the good doctor intended, I'm sure.
Would a corporate sleep policy involve so-called corporate nap time? Ronald Regan took naps on occasion when he was president, and the general medical consensus now is that he was smart to do so. I can just see all of us being issued rolled up mats or rugs to lie down on during the day. I guess we'd have to switch to decaf coffee in the machines too.