Whilst a huge nine in 10 employees believe an hour’s Spanish-style siesta would enhance their performance almost the same number of bosses disagree.
These are the findings of Peninsula employment law firm who found that 78 per cent of bosses consider siestas to have a negative effect on workplace productivity.
Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula said: “Whilst most employers would probably think that the idea of allowing their staff to sleep during work hours as unnecessary and a liberty not worth issuing, they need to be aware that many employees find that during the afternoon hours their productivity levels drop. The argument on their grounds is that having a siesta can help to increase these drops in productivity and therefore help to reduce careless mistakes that some employees make. These mistakes often cost companies thousands of pounds to rectify.”
Diet, said Done, also plays its part.
“Having a healthy diet and drinking plenty of water can help combat the afternoon blues which many employees go through after their lunch break. Employers can ensure that their workers have accessible healthy food and water by installing vending machines with nourishing food items available and drinking water which can help with concentration.”
Last month, HR Zone revealed that six million workers are so tired they oversleep every day, with HR managers making it into the top five tardiest professions for snoozing late into the mornings and coming to work late.
One Response
It depends on what you mean by a nap
If the original question was really in terms of allowing employees to take an hour then the employers are probably right. The wisdom on this subject in various publications is as follows. If you settle down for an hour your body will think it is in for a long sleep and start shutting down for a full sleep. When you wake up you will have to start all the systems up, a process that takes some time, with resultant loss of productivity.
The ideal time for a reviving nap is said to be around 20 minutes, no more. My experience, based on years of driving, squares with this. A timed 20 minutes (most mobile phones have a countdown timer on them) followed by a short walk round works wonders.
Perhaps if the question had been put differently a diffeent answer would have emerged. Is this time much different from the aggregate time lost by smokers popping out for a cigarette?