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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think that having a 'power nap' in the office is plain strange?

61 replies

GetOrfMoiLand · 03/02/2010 16:43

Suppliers visiting today at 1pm - has been arrange for ages.

Went to collect a colleague from his desk - he had his chin resting on his hand and was looking down. I thought he was deeply engrossed in reading a document on his desk or something.

His colleagues just looked at me and laughed. They said 'oh he's asleep. he has a powernap at lunchtimes. Just say his name gently and he will wake up'. My face must have been a picture and they pissed themselves.

He woke up all bleary eyed and I said 'do you need a coffee' in slightly acerbic tones.

So he went into the suppleir meeting all yawny.

I was slightly flabbergasted and mentioned it to my colleague - who got all self righteous and said 'he is perfcetly entightled to sleep in his lunch hour'. FFS it is in a great big open plan office with about 100 people in it!

Have I entered a strange parallel world?

OP posts:

Pheebe · 03/02/2010 17:33

YABU - its been shown to significantly improve cognitive function and workplace performance. More companies should encourage it.

However, YANBU to think your colleague is strange though, sounds like he just nodded off and has tried to cover it up Who naps just before an important meeting?

SerenityNowakaBleh · 03/02/2010 17:34

Yes, normally one waits for the meeting to commence before napping

AKMD · 03/02/2010 17:35

I used to nap at my desk but I didn't have a shared office so it wasn't a big deal. I did draw the blinds across the internal windows though! From time to time I would also nod off by accident as I was completely exhausted. I doubt anyone who walked in would have cared TBH.

emsyj · 03/02/2010 17:38

I am ex-City law firm - I believe they had a room in the basement with beds, but didn't ever see it (or have cause to use it). Was in a specialist team not mainstream corporate so luckily could do 2am conference calls etc from comfort of own home via remote desktop access. The luxury! [was not that bad really and paid shedloads so can't complain emoticon]

AliGrylls · 03/02/2010 18:41

YABU - I think it is a great idea. Although I could never do it at work because senior partner could always see me from his office. How shit.

moondog · 03/02/2010 19:25

How does one fall asleep on the throne??

Rebeccaruby · 03/02/2010 19:38

It might be OK for a bloke, but if you're a woman it must mean a serious reapplication of eye make-up . I once worked for a company that had a sickbay with a bed (I'm not sure why, looking back it seems bizarre) and the occasional hangover victim took refuge there. It was on the top floor where nobody ever went, so management didn't know!

MrsC2010 · 03/02/2010 19:39

Head against cubicle wall in desperation.

Judd · 03/02/2010 19:47

When I was pregnant, I was in my boss's office sitting in his big comfy chair and typing away as he dictated to me. He popped outside with a colleague for 5 minutes, during which time I fell asleep !
When I came to, about 25 mins later, he wasn't there but he'd left me a lovely posh coffee on his desk ! I found him in somebody else's office and apologised profusely but he just waved it away.
I was only temping for the company so I felt I was really lucky not to have been dismissed. He had small children so I think that helped him empathise with me....

clasp · 03/02/2010 19:49

GetOrf: get away! I often retire to our stationary cupboard where we have a comfy chair for the purpose. I roll up in my coat, switch off the light, and 15 - 20 minutes later I'm right as rain, human again. One time the janitor came in to see to some fuses and it was a bit embarrassing but I mumbled about migraines and he totally understood.

Are you very young? Why do you find all this so strange?
'anotehr group of blokes had rigged up a volleyball net between two buildings and were playing volleyball'
Duh? So? Getalife!

Ewe · 03/02/2010 19:58

YABU power naps are fab!

I often nap on loo when hungover, curl up on top of loo with seat down and back against cubicle wall. Works every time!

tvaerialmagpiebin · 03/02/2010 20:09

I used to work in the same company as my dad and he had it down to a fine art. He would put his hands on the keyboard in typing position, then angle his chair slightly away from the rest of the office, and nod off. The squeak of the adjacent door to the boss's office always woke him up and his fingers automatically clattered away as he came to. It was very impressive.

I slept in the loo, on the floor, at my desk, anywhere, in the early stages of pregnancy. Before I worked out that I was in fact pregnant I thought I must have developed some kind of fast-onset narcolepsy. Durrrr.

Original poster

GetOrfMoiLand · 04/02/2010 08:24

Clasp - 'are you very young? Why do you find this so strange?'

No, 31. So not young. Professional though, and have never seen this in all my years of working. Perhaps they just hid it better.

Did I complain about the volleyball men? No, it actually amused me. So please don't tell me to get a life. You are obviously compkletely unable to recognise a light hearted thread when you recognise it.

Christ.

'Get a life'. Cheeky twat.

OP posts:

Kewcumber · 04/02/2010 08:30

are you sure he isn't ill and covering it up with "power naps" excuse. I used to regularly fall asleep in work due to a medical condition - I wonder now if my colleagues used to think it was "power napping"! No-one ever said a word until after I told them I was ill.

chocolaterabbit · 04/02/2010 08:36

My mum used to sleep most days in her lunchbreak when she had regularly broken nights. I have done a few times when DD woke me up to play at 3 in the morning and when I was pregnant wth DS. Nobody ever commented although it was open plan.

After about 6 months someone showed me where the 'quiet room' is... Not in a city law firm btw.

When I worked for one, I never found beds apparently they were removed because it made the firm look bad, as though you were expected to be there all night. You were still expected to be there all night but without a bed...

geordieminx · 04/02/2010 08:58

dh used to sleep in his car at lunchtime when ds was small and up 1000000 times a night.

Heating on, seat back job' a good un'. I used to do the same when pregnant

TheElephant · 04/02/2010 09:01

no ( to OP)

Original poster

GetOrfMoiLand · 04/02/2010 09:07

At least you're not telling me to get a life I suppose

Warning to self - remember people take AIBU very seriously.

OP posts:

TheElephant · 04/02/2010 09:08

SIl when pg( she is tiny) used to sleep under desk at liunch
one day found soemone had been in and left papers on it!

she can sleep anwyehre
is very cool

tallulahbelly · 04/02/2010 09:15

I worked with someone who did this.

Usually she'd lie on the floor in a small spare room where we kept files. If you needed to get in there it was impossible not to bash her with the door which she then claimed was done deliberately.

One day she wrote a two page memo to the managing director claiming the noise of phones, typewriters and 'idle chatter from my colleagues' was disturbing her and that she often had to go sick or knock off early to escape us.

She suggested using petty cash to buy 'secondhand furniture, maybe an easy chair or ideally a put-you-up from the small ads in the paper' or her sickness situation would be 'exacerbated'.

He thought it was a joke. Or at least behaved as if it was. His secretary forwarded it to us so we knew just what kind of person we were forced to share workspace with. I've still got it somewhere.

One afternoon she repeatedly fell asleep on the press bench in court (it a local paper in the 80s) and a court officer phoned us to get her because he was afraid the judge would see and go mad.

We voted to leave her. Sadly she was not shown a cosy cell to sleep off her contempt of court.

She'd also try to wriggle out of her turn at doing inquests because 'they're so upsetting and you're not as sensitive as me'.

Nothing at all to do with the fact that court sat on press day and the lazy cow didn't fancy having to do them all before she went home.

That was cathartic

merrymonsters · 04/02/2010 09:18

I worked in an office in the US which had a nap room. There was an inner office (i.e. no window) with a blind, a sofa and an alarm clock.

I once found someone sleeping in a cupboard at work.

Original poster

GetOrfMoiLand · 04/02/2010 09:20

Elephant did you sister have fun at scaring people out of their wits whilst under desk? Say like grabbing their ankles and behaving like scary ghost in Sixth Sense?

I wouldn't fir under my desk, have just looked. Would be tempting to hide sometimes.

OP posts:

TheBossofMe · 04/02/2010 09:21

Standard practice in Japan when I worked there.

Infuriatingly, I never managed the master the art.

moondog · 04/02/2010 09:23

Hilarious Talullah!

Hulababy · 04/02/2010 09:25

I thought power naps were supposedto be considered a very good idea. Sure I have read about them, and how it is good to recharge - just 10 minutes is ennough apparently.

I can only sleep in the day is really quite poorly and hae even trouble falling to sleep at night, even when shattered. I envy people who can fall asleep almost at will.

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