Sleeping on the job

I was managing a team once where one of my consultants was asleep, at her desk, in the middle of the working day. I tried investigating as inconspicuously as possible, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway, as she was asleep, like, fast asleep.

Anyway, my initial reaction as her manager was to be annoyed, angry in fact, how dare we pay her to sleep. Who does she think she is?!

These days though, as some time has past, I'm wondering if those feelings were right.

After all, Google now has sleeping stations, Ben & Jerry's has nap spaces and Cisco has invested $13,000 per sleeping pod in their HQ.

Sleep is the most natural thing, everybody all over the world needs it. It's a human right, one could argue. But can small business really compete with the Googles of the world in being able to offer 'flexible-sleeping'? Should employees be forgiven for resting their eyes at work? Would productivity increase if the workforce could nap on their own terms? Can small employers trust their employees not to take advantage of such a benefit?

Maybe one day, we'll all live, work, eat, breath, sleep and mate all under one big home-office-nap-eatery-pod-station (with a pool, we need a pool) sponsored by Google and life will be complete.