Sleepy Time
September 29th, 2008 by Cali & Jody
We’re heading to Memphis to speak to the TN SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) group, and we’re dreading one thing: the early flight. Neither of us are what you would call “morning people” and a 7:00 a.m. flight makes us downright crabby. We’ll be sleeping on the plane and looking to grab a quick siesta when we get to the hotel, before grabbing dinner with the conference chair. Lucky for us, we’re not sleep deprived.
But lack of sleep is getting to be more and more of a problem, especially for people’s health. As this recent NYT’s article states: “…the attitude toward sleep in America - and in American business, in particular - has scarcely changed. Corporate culture reveres the e-mail message sent at 3 a.m., the executive who rushes directly into a meeting from a red-eye flight.” Well, if health concerns didn’t do the trick in getting businesses to realize how important sleep is, maybe the study at the heart of the NYT’s article will. It finds that sleep helps us make connections between ideas - gives some truth to the old saying “Let me sleep on it.”
The article then goes on to talk about companies that have placed Energy Pods in their environments for naps and quick rests. We cringed at the Pods. Now that we might be making some headway on realizing how important sleep is, we’re going to encourage people to sleep at the office? Because that’s where you’ll be most relaxed?
One of the findings we’re most proud of from the University of MN/National Institutes of Health study on ROWE at Best Buy is that ROWE employees get more sleep, and experience better quality sleep, than non-ROWE employees. Given the Harvard study, guess it makes sense then that creativity on ROWE teams is a notch up from what it was pre-ROWE.
So we have to ask: If you had an Energy Pod in your office environment, would you use it? And, if you do have them where you work, does anybody use them?
I would not sleep in one of these. Being that I am a big guy (6′5″, 275), I can’t really see myself fitting in one. let alone sleeping.
I think I’d have better luck trying to sleep on a plane!
The pod’s illusion of privacy or personal space would not be enough for me sleep at work.
At home…well that’s another thing. Could it block out the kids and the video games?
Yes, I would use an energy pod if it was available. I do much better if I take a short nap when I’m tired. However, I would much rather work in a ROWE and be rested.
First of all Cali and Jody; love your Blog and your concept of ROWE. I have been working at Fortune 500 companies over the last 30 or so years and have not encountered much in the way of ROWE only environments. Oh they want results alright; but they want your first born, your time and your blood as well!
Speaking of Sleepy Time; at my current company which has in it’s logo the word “Innovation” I was recently on a trip to Sao Paulo Brazil. When we flew down and back it was an all night flight which the CEO loves because he can “get back to the office in time for some quick meetings”. So we flew down around 9:00 PM Dallas time and got there at around 6:00 AM Sao Paulo time. After a grueling 10 hour no-sleep flight, we fought traffic for 3 hours to get to the office where meetings started with haste! I am sure everyone on our team was super alert but I found myself passing notes to my colleague scrawled with the words “please shoot me now”. Of course at the end of the day we “had” to all go out for dinner to continue our discussions…ouch.
Same thing in reverse on the way back to Dallas. When we landed at DFW airport at around 6:30 AM my CEO boss wanted to be nice; so he said “go home a grab a quick shower but be back by 8:30 for our conference call”.
One funny thing is that we had been trying to implement more “work from home” strategies for certain folks but now the boss has said he wants to “get away from that”. It just does not seem to work for him.
If I live through a few more of those flights to various places around the world, I will be commenting more on your blog! Keep up the good work.
Cybercamp
I feel like anybody taking a naptime at work in a public place like that would be seen as a slacker. If you really need to lie down, you should be at home.
@DC guy - we’d love to see you try to get into one of those pods. we would show up in the office *just* to see that!
@Cybercamp - if we could get 5 minutes with your CEO, we’d have many messages for him, as you can probably imagine. Glad to have you here - and look forward to more from you. Your stories will provide more impetus for readers to get moving toward ROWE now…and we hope to watch firsthand how your working life changes as you get deeper into the concept of ROWE…
Man oh man…I used to work for a large insurance company and had a regional manager who would probably buy the EnergyPods, if it didn’t interfere with “member service”.
I’m so glad I’m no longer there.
@Eric Ogunbase - we can see it now: Knock, knock - “are you napping in the Energy Pod? These are just for *looks*. We don’t actually want you sleeping in here. There are members that might need service out here. Up and at ‘em!”
Well I work at home so I would call my pod my couch I guess. And yes, I do use it periodically throughout the day just to take my eyes off the computer. I think its really necessary to get quality stuff done. I much rather stay up later at night doing work as I feel like it, rather then try and cram everything into 1 8-10hr period of torture.
Due to my commute time (1.5 hrs one way), I tend to get sleepy and have been using the Pod idea for a while now…however, my Pod is actually my car in a parking lot of the local Chinese Food joint.
****UPDATE****
I have been told I will be receiving judgment on my proposal by the end of next week. Please remember, I have performed at a very high level without one reprimand or assessment in my file since my hire in 2004, implemented two programs which never existed prior to my hire, generated almost $1 million for the district, have agreed to give up benefits, retirement, and tuition reimbursement, and cut costs associated with my position by almost $17,000 annually.
Yet, just today I caught the wrath of my director for not emailing I would be out, because people get “concerned” when I do not check in. Ugh!
We’ll see….
Nope. Not in my work place. As I have been told “you have a schedule and you are to be here working during your scheduled hours…”
I am pretty sure “nap time” would not fit in to the picture…
@Michael Barata - thanks for the update. when this saga is all over, you will have a mighty good story about how the current work environment operates. BTW - we were getting “concerned” when we didn’t hear from you for 24 hours before your post
@Mad Guy - you bring up a point that had us all riled up yesterday. While we were in Memphis, we met someone that is extremely talented at what he does - one of those people that you’d *think* companies would bend over backwards for in order to keep. We found out that this person travels quite a bit for his job and when he returns from his business trips (where he gets his work done), he’s forced to be in the office and basically just sit there, bored out of his mind.
“You have a schedule and you *will* have your butt in your chair duing that time.” He hates it and he could call himself Mad Guy, too
Laughing out loud….yes, I spell it out…..
I would not use the POD. We have an on site chiropractor, which I need, and I sometimes miss out because of a meeting.
POD with sludge, NOPE.
POD taking the place of a counch in your office because you put so much time in at work, NOPE.
POD in a ROWE, DON’T NEED IT.
POD in my own home to get away from housework and screaming children, a call to child welfare office from my neighbor.
Well ROWE seems like the only logical choice to me.
@Kim - you got it! All our thoughts about the Pods are encapsulated very nicely in your comment. Pod schmod - ROWE is the answer!
Another sleep contraption that you can set right on your laptop to get a few zzz’s: http://www.digital.udk-berlin.de/en/projects/winter0607/hauptstudium/laptop/isleep.html
Think people are buying this?