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Fast Talk

February 28, 2008

Q: Should every office have a nap room? | posted by Saabira Chaudhuri

Tags: Work/Life
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February 28, 2008 at 12:15pm by Gene Lu

don't forget the blue cots, the nilla cookies, and a thing of milk!

February 28, 2008 at 12:31pm by Joseph Schmitt

Without a doubt.

February 28, 2008 at 1:22pm by Rodrigo Leme

Not exactly a nap room, but every office should have a relaxation room. A place where you can read, study, relax and even take a quick nap. That would be great.

February 28, 2008 at 2:57pm by Tyler Adams

Absolutely! This would be extremely beneficial at times for many offices. For example, I don't know, when a team of developers works around the clock to launch an innovative new website they might like a place to grab a quick nap.

February 28, 2008 at 3:08pm by Gene Lu

I second Rodrigo's idea. What about those Pods that were big in NYC a while back? What ever happened to them?

February 28, 2008 at 3:52pm by Shawn Graham

Absolutely. Other rooms I’d like to see in order of desirability:
Bottomless tub of popcorn room. For workers at organizations where popcorn has been banned after repeated smoke alarm drops.

Dunkin Donuts room. 12 hours in Logan airport put a strain on our relationship, Dunkin Donuts, but I’m ready to give it another shot.

The “anything but business news” TV room. As the name implies, business news channels would be strictly prohibited. Could also be combined with popcorn room.

Soundproof career confessional room. A safe place to vent about all of your work-related issues.

February 28, 2008 at 4:04pm by galeros *

For sure. :)

February 28, 2008 at 4:07pm by Kerstin Grady

It would be a benefit to many offices. Particularly refreshing during marathon deadlines/crunchtimes. Having worked previously at an agency that had a "quiet room" I miss having a cozy, quiet place to rest one's head for a few peaceful moments of nothingness... some of the best solutions come from that "nothing-space".
Milk & cookies and a would be a nice touch, too, in fact I think that there are a few companies doing that already, along with hot lunches.

February 28, 2008 at 4:56pm by Bettina Settles

sure why not..some of them have exercise rooms and game rooms why not nap rooms?

February 28, 2008 at 4:59pm by m e

Terry Tate, office linebacker says, "Break was over ten minutes ago...
Get back to work!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fXpFUexi50&feature=related

All kidding aside, when your company starts going down the road of
laying out capital (throwing money at a problem) ..I would say you need to re-evaluate the work flow process, number of meetings (ie standup meetings are shorter), etc.

(Someone just thought to themselves..I nap at some sit-down meetings...)

The "nap"...is trying to find a compensation to take a 45,50 hr week to 60,70+ hrs and suffer no consequences.

One route that certainly has been taken, is to make a "campus" out of the workplace. Add a Starbucks and a gym and nap room and childcare facility, dry cleaning and mobile car wash amenities...

But...extra amenities amount to overhead costs... so in a company with a growing sales revenue product/service... yielding profits still growing to suit investors and Wall St analysts... fine.

Yet, companies with lesser size and on other parts of the product life cycle, need to look at getting people home and rested/ flex schedules/ some work from home..etc.

Its always about "balance"

February 28, 2008 at 6:11pm by Darren Shield

No. Working your employees to the point where they need to rest in the middle of the work day before becoming effecient again is bad. Nap rooms encourage staff to stay longer hours over all.

February 28, 2008 at 6:23pm by Elise Geiger

Yes! If not a nap room, than some dimly lit area that workers can escape the fluorescent bulbs and computer glare for a brief period of time to re-energize.

February 28, 2008 at 7:21pm by Kathryn Collins

That sounds liek a GREAT idea to me but, if that were the case I don't think any work would be getting done in that office...only naps

February 28, 2008 at 7:55pm by Andy Kill

Yes - every office should have a nap room, and it should be equipped with a hammock. Every one would want this hammock come nap time, which would spark confrontations, but it would be well worth it for the guy/gal who gets the hammock.

February 28, 2008 at 8:24pm by Dhruv Manek

After many experiments, doctors have came to a conclusion that a average working person taking a 15-30 min nap in the afternoon will have a less risk of any heart problems or any stress issues. It is also believed that the work will be more efficient and will be accomplished in a faster period of time.

February 29, 2008 at 12:04am by Rusty Weston

Home office workers don't really have this problem! And if we were going to have an office nap room, I'd want it to be co-ed. Whoops, the HR police are after me ...

--
Rusty Weston
My Global Career
http://www.myglobalcareer.com

February 29, 2008 at 7:25am by Steven Heath

No. A nap room implies the company expects you to work 12, 14, 16 hours a day or at least long enough to require a nap. I'm all for offering perks for employees but this goes a little far. I firmly believe any company who's employees cannot get normal work done in a regular, eight-hour day has an efficiency problem. Long days that would require a nap should be for the rare, surge situation.

February 29, 2008 at 8:01am by Joe Luna

Yes. Oh, and an exercise room. And a Game room. And a movie room. Maybe an open bar...

NO! It's an office, not a five star hotel.

February 29, 2008 at 9:11am by agata stypka

yes

February 29, 2008 at 11:49am by Eric Rhodes

Yes, but I don't see small companies with unimaginative CEOs investing in such ideas. However, there is a budding industry that offers such services along with a light massage. So if it's a nap you want it's a nap you can get. But you have to pay for it.

March 1, 2008 at 6:31am by MMANKONYA GRACE SEMAKALENG KGWALE

NAP? AT A WORK PLACE? IT WILL ONLY BE A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE NAP ROOMS BECOME AVAILABLE EVEN IN CINEMA...I DON'T ENCOURAGE SUCH...YOU DO YOUR WORK AND YOU WILL FIND YOUR BED AT HOME..SIMPLE AS THAT

March 1, 2008 at 1:32pm by Jon N

YES. As someone who falls asleep at my desk almost every day, my productivity would skyrocket if I could just go lay down for a 10-15 minute nap whenever I needed to. Having short naps is a lot better than having a bunch of sleep-deprived zombies walking around all day.

March 14, 2008 at 4:29pm by Thomas Malloy

YES

March 15, 2008 at 10:26pm by Patrick Johnson

Not explicitly, but there should be a break room. And somewhere in that breakroom, there should be a spot where you could comfortably take a nap at two in the morning. During the day you shouldn't be sleeping at the office, but a cat nap certainly feels great when you're pulling an all-nighter.

March 16, 2008 at 10:23am by John Josef

I agree with Steven. If you work that much to the point where you need to sleep at work - that is unhealthy. Not only for your mind and body, but also unhealthy on your lifestyle. Working that much not only affects yourself, but the people around you - your family and friends. If you don't have any family or friends then you should stop working so much and go out more often.

Working overtime in my business is fairly common, but I try to limit the actual hours I'm in the office as I can work from anywhere.

March 16, 2008 at 3:45pm by Sonja Brooks

Two points to make here:
1. Yes, the work place should provide a place for napping. Simply because American workers lack sleep and real vacation time.
2. American Companies can learn from European counterparts. We should have federal legislation that impliments minimum of 3 week vacations. We will have more productivity in work place; less stressed out workers = minimal postal incidents. Then perhaps it won't be neccessary to have nap rooms.
We must change our work ethics and corporate cutlure.

March 17, 2008 at 12:03pm by M S

A nap room is a great idea. The concept of a nap room is to re-energize the employees. A lot of people are assuming that employees are tired and will want to sleep away the work day. I think that a 15-20 minute nap will make most employees more productive in the long run. If the nap can be worked into the lunch hour then it wouldn't effect the work day at all.

March 17, 2008 at 5:09pm by David Grossman

I think nap rooms are a good idea in theory but sound like a liability nightmare. You can't have dark, unsupervised quadrants of an office space with beds in them.

Unless your business is called a brothel.

March 18, 2008 at 3:19pm by Paula Krell

I find myself much more mentally clear and physically refreshed after a 15-20 minute power nap. It helps me to work more effectively for quite awhile. And beds aren't really needed. A good recliner works, too.