

Napping at work. A company that gets it. - aspirant
http://blog.transloc.com/?p=47

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thijsterlouw
I work at Tencent in China and here more than half of the people take a nap in
the midday. We have a lunchbreak from 12 to 14h and around 13h the lights get
turned off and lots of people get their foldable beds out (others just use q
cushion and sleep in their chair) and sleep for 30 minutes to 1 hour in their
cubicle. Personally I still don't take a nap, probably still my western
inhibitions :)

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Dornkirk
I hope you don't mind if I ask you a few questions about work in China as it
may be relevant to me in the future:

1) I've heard China often has 6-day workweeks as a norm, is this true? And
likewise that official time off (vacation time for instance) is hard to come
by? 2) Do you work on the technical side of things? If so how did you get the
position? (I work in consulting and right now we don't actually have any
clients in China).

~~~
thijsterlouw
1) as far as I know, 5-day workweeks are the norm. I don't know companies that
require you to work 6 days. The boss of course doesn't mind if you come in the
weekend, but it's not required.

2) we have quite a lot of holidays. Everyone has the national days off + some
annual holidays that you can use whenever you want.

I'm a programmer yes. I took part in an innovation contest, got the job that
way. Was lucky :) Working in a Chinese company is not easy, it's better if you
first learn at least some Chinese.

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bkrausz
Couches are awesome, but I think beds send the wrong message of "you should
always be at work". We have a mattress laying around that I'm considering
moving to the GazeHawk office (when we find one), mostly as a joke, but
nothing says "creepy" quite like a bed in the corner of an office.

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shaddi
Seems like a hammock might be a good alternative.

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maguay
Ah, what happened to curling up under your desk to catch a few winks?

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yesbabyyes
My uncle has worked for the Swedish patent office for his entire life. He has
a mattress under his desk and takes a nap every afternoon.

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b0b0b0b
Google seems to attack this problem from a variety of expensive angles [1],
[2]. But in the end, the simplest thing sounds best to me [3].

[1] [http://glassbox-design.com/2009/google-goes-aquatic-
photos-i...](http://glassbox-design.com/2009/google-goes-aquatic-photos-
inside-an-office-quiet-room/)

[2] [http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/17/another-reason-to-
want-a-...](http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/17/another-reason-to-want-a-job-
at-google-insane-napping-pods/)

[3]
[http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/6ceia/google_naps_phot...](http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/6ceia/google_naps_photo/c03gypt)

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kloncks
The problem with napping at work is that a lot of people don't know how to nap
properly (how long to sleep? when to nap? etc) so it might actually cause
people to feel worse, more tired, or groggy.

How long is enough? About 30 minutes is considered sufficient, according to a
recent NASA study that assumes most Americans miss a little more of an hour of
sleep every night.

~~~
flatline
In my experience, just starting to doze off is enough for a refresher. This
may take all of 20-30 minutes in itself, I can often go to sleep at night
faster than I can fall asleep during the day. Salvatore Dali was famously said
to have held a spoon in his hand suspended above a metal pan and when he fell
asleep the spoon would drop and wake him with its sound. Just lying down for a
period with eyes shut and little external stimulus is a great refresher for
me. Finding the time/place to do this is the hardest part.

~~~
BrandonM
I totally agree with this. I had to make a three hour drive last night, and
just a half hour into it I was feeling very tired. I pulled off at the first
rest stop, put the seat back, and just laid there relaxing for about ten
minutes. I didn't even fall asleep. I then got out of the car, moved around a
bit to get the blood pumping, and made the rest of the drive without feeling
tired at all.

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michaelchisari
I appreciate the sentiment, and generally think it's a really great idea and
gesture, but personally, when I nap, I end up feeling 10x worse when I wake up
than when I started. I can rarely think of a time when I've taken a nap and
not regretted it.

But that doesn't mean I wouldn't encourage companies to do this.

~~~
gruseom
How old are you? I used to be unable to take short naps and would always feel
terrible on waking. Sometime in my late 20s-early 30s this completely changed
and I have since grown to love the 15-20 minute nap. Likely there was some
kind of shift in brain chemistry; it would be interesting to know what it was.

~~~
yesbabyyes
I have had the same experience. When I was a teenager, my day would be ruined
if I took a nap. I would feel really tired, and a bit nauseous. Nowadays a
short nap is almost never wrong, but I can still feel a little bit off
sometimes.

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gruseom
As the author gets, this kind of napping isn't just about sleep or even rest.
It's intimately related to creativity.

 _Reverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows
the plenitude of the soul._

(Gaston Bachelard)

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muxxa
I'd like to see a photo of the couch! Mainly to see where it is (noise wise),
and whether you can close a door on a couch room and signal it as being
occupied?

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masterponomo
My employer allows napping, but it takes a bit of work to fit it into our
agile development style. Obviously, it's poor form to nap during a scrum. You
might miss something important, or you might awaken refreshed but with your
name on all the crappy assignments. Most problematic is pair napping. What if
they other guy/gal isn't sleepy? We try to pair based on skill level and
circadian rhythm, but not all employers go to that length. When done
correctly, pair napping is much more productive. The other day I was having a
pre-nap daydream and my partner (I'll call her "Lisa" so you won't think it
was a dude) suggested that I close my eyes. I did so, and I fell asleep a lot
sooner. Sometimes a quick suggestion like that will spare you minutes or hours
of wasted wakefulness.

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Poiesis
That's funny--I always thought a company that "gets it" would tell you to go
home and get some sleep for your own health and for the sake of the quality of
the work you're doing.

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bryanlarsen
I used to suffer from really bad headaches (which have since stopped since
I've gone caffeine free), so having a bed at work was a job prerequisite. At
big companies you had to check in with the nurse to use the bed. The startup I
worked for put in a bed, so others used it for napping. It always seemed to
make any general press article about the company, implying something about the
dot-com mentaility...

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athst
I think it's awesome that they allow naps - I'd probably get 25-50% more done
if I could take naps during the day.

But one thing I'm wondering about is, how do you manage expectations about how
much is appropriate and create the culture that it's okay to sleep in the
middle of the day? In a lot of places I imagine this could get out of hand
where people who don't nap might think less of those that do.

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MrFlibble
Less than 25 minutes you should feel refreshed, more than that you may feel
groggy. Even if you only go into "standby" mode and don't actually sleep, the
downtime typically leaves you feeling refreshed.

I worked a show with 70+ hour weeks for several months & those 17 minute (best
length for me for some reason) power naps were the only thing that kept me
sane.

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pshapiro
I tried to convince my boss of this a few years back... no dice yet.. ;)

In fact, we have a sign in the coffee lounge (diagrammed in art deco style
with an idealized picture of a lady holding a coffee cup) that says, "Coffee!
You can sleep when you're dead!"

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TamDenholm
Is this couch in a separate room somewhere? To me a couch is usually put in a
communal area that is usually populated.

If thats the case it would be both hard to have a nap and also really quite
creepy.

~~~
philwelch
At my university's engineering building, people sleep on the lounge couches
all the time.

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ankimal
My solution to sleep problems: [http://itunes.apple.com/app/sleep-cycle-alarm-
clock/id320606...](http://itunes.apple.com/app/sleep-cycle-alarm-
clock/id320606217?mt=8)

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gauravgupta
Really, it's nothing but a company who has hired employees who "get it".

