How Napping Can Increase Productivity and Creativity (Part II)

Helen entered the conference room where Ron and John were listening to Peter’s presentation on napping. “Sorry, I am late,” Helen said as she took her seat near Ron. Being the HR manager she was glad to use every opportunity to learn more about employees’ concerns.

Peter continued talking about the advantages of napping. He explained how it could boost concentration, productivity, and creativity. He also mentioned that 20 or 30 minutes napping in the afternoon would be quite enough for reducing tiredness. He demonstrated the benefits with some slides showing pods, yoga mats, and recliner chairs that could be used for napping. Peter’s words sounded rather convincing at the first glance. “By the way, Salvador Dali napped in his chair with a spoon in his hand and when the spoon fell he went back to his work. Napping has been used for charging “batteries”,” Peter said finishing his presentation. A short pause followed. Suddenly Ron burst into laughter: “Sorry, Peter, I’ve just visualized our employees sleeping with spoons. Ha.. How many spoons should we have? Well, napping is a possible theory for me,” Ron said still laughing. John looked at Peter thoughtfully and said: “I am very impressed by the equipment for short naps – chairs, pods, and yoga mats …Well, even if our company decided to allow napping in the afternoon, we would have no place for special rooms.” Without any hesitation Peter replied: “Shakespeare called sleep “the chief nourisher of life’s feast.” Shakespeare’s quote unexpectedly leaded to a discussion about the advantages of napping… Helen was listening and making notes trying not to interrupt her colleagues. Her instinct told her to remain silent. Peter was confused about Helen’s silence. “Helen, what do you think?” he asked her. “To begin with, it’s hard to say how many employees complain about tiredness. Well, I am a bit skeptical about bringing napping to the work place in our company. Taking naps at our desks or in napping rooms won’t solve all possible problems. Peter, what do employees complain about?” Helen replied in her usual confident tone. Ron, who was a strong opponent of napping, was about to celebrate his victory. Peter couldn’t answer Helen’s question and looked at John as if asking him for help. John shrugged his shoulders: “Hm… I admit there might be different reasons for tiredness and they can change from time to time.” Helen nodded adding: “Absolutely! I think we can’t ignore the fact that our employees experience tiredness during a week. But our management can’t force anyone to sleep more, do sports, or eat healthy food. What our company should do is perhaps offer their employees an opportunity to boost self-awareness of the benefits of fitness and a healthy life-style.” Ron’s face tightened noticeably: “Hm.. sounds good but we should calculate how expensive it might be for the company”. Helen was surprised: “I think we should work on a strategy, calculate how our employees and the company can benefit, and convince management. 

By the way, it’s always better to prevent stress than deal with it. Would you agree?”