4

The benefits of napping during work are heavily promoted in a recent New York Times article. Psychologists such as Daniel Goleman and Ron Friedman have been long time advocates of midday naps, citing their effectiveness in increasing productivity and improving decision making ability.

As far as I know, my company has no written policy regarding taking naps on the clock and I'd like to know if inquiring about it would be considered to be within the realm of professional policy discussion. From my personal experience, I've often found "sleeping on a problem" to be more effective in producing quality solutions than racking my brain for an equal period of time.

I've only been in my job for two months and I'm not sure how to broach the topic without being viewed as a sloth, or even if it's worth bringing it up at all.

  • Is this a topic worth asking about?
  • If so, what would be an appropriate manner to bring it up?
Improve this question
6
  • 2
    Appropriateness likely depends on your office culture which takes time to understand. Are you in an industry known for being innovative (IT, startups) or rather the opposite (financial sector, big law)? What level were you hired at (senior/manager/director/...)? Are you talking about power-naps or something longer?
    – Lilienthal ♦
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 19:00
  • @Lilienthal reading the article, they are recommending power (20 mins aprox) naps
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 19:02
  • @Lilienthal I'm in a tech role in the education industry. This is my second job in the industry and I don't have anyone reporting to me. I'm talking about a period no more than 20-30 minutes.
    – AffableAmbler
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 19:03
  • 4
    Possible duplicate of How do you request your manager for a nap or sleep?
    – Bernhard Barker
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 19:04
  • 1
    @Dukeling I think my question is slightly different because it's about napping to increase productivity/solve problems rather than making up for missed sleep but I'll let the community decide.
    – AffableAmbler
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 19:07

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
9

Is this a topic worth asking about? If so, what would be an appropriate manner to bring it up?

I think is something not too worth asking about, however nothing prevents you from trying. It is definitely nothing outrageous to ask, and also if you phrase it properly people can see that you are suggesting it with good intentions (and not just seem like a lazy person).

If you want to bring it up, be sure to have some good arguments to back up your proposal; as I see it a single article (not even scientific, just a Newspaper article) is not enough to back up such claim, and definitely not enough to justify a company-wide action.

However, reading the article, I see what they recommend is to take power naps (that is less than 30 minutes). What you could do is to use your lunch or break time to take such power naps, so you are not wasting time where you should be working.

Improve this answer
0
3

Is it something worth bringing up?

Sure, it's something to while away some break time discussing with your colleagues .

Should you bring it up?

No, you've only been there 2 months, put your head down, concentrate on your tasks and don't get involved with anything controversial such as questioning company policy until you have earned peoples respect as a professional.

Improve this answer
1
  • 4
    "put your head down"... but not literally.
    – maxathousand
    Commented Oct 9, 2017 at 21:17

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .