Would you be attracted to a company that offered “a fully stocked kitchen” and “free snacks” over the course of the day?
I’ve seen quite a few employment ads boasting of these perks. I not only find them unattractive, to me, they are repelling.
This reaction is not from an aversion to fully stocked kitchens. I’ve said I do a decent amount of cooking at home, so I’m no stranger to gleaming counter tops, a well-stocked fridge, and other amenities.
I suspect that by “fully stocked,” these employers are not inviting workers to roast turkeys with all the trimmings, whenever the whim strikes.
They probably have salt, pepper, coffee creamers, but nothing you could truly whip into a meal.
The “free snacks” part of the enticement seems beguiling, but is it? There are some diets that encourage grazing. They would have us eat four to six mini-meals a day, which to me seems excessive. I get along nicely with two major helpings and my morning coffee, supplemented by lots of cool water.
My problem with the kitchen and snacks concept is that it’s really an inducement to stay on the job without taking a meaningful break from the action.
I sense “kitchen” and “snacks” are code words for slaving away in the coal mines without hope of breathing fresh air until the elevator brings you back to the surface after the last whistle blows.
If you think about it, constant snacking, along with sitting on our butts all day long, is a perfect prescription for obesity. This benefits no one, including employers who lose valuable working hours to fatimpacted ailments and diseases.
You might read this and guess that I’m going to prescribe the use of standing desks and on-site gyms. I’m not against them, but my thesis is more radical.
We shouldn’t be deriving our bursts of energy from coffee, energy drinks, and sugary snacks.
We should be getting that second wind from taking a nap, smack in the middle of the working shift, if desired.
Workplaces should encourage and provide the facilities for catching 30–90 minutes of meaningful shut-eye, whenever employees need it.
Imagine being a truck driver who has just raced through the city, dropping off packages or other items. Between the traffic, double parking, darting drivers, and other stresses, he or she has been held to a tight schedule, really without a break.
Returning to the company’s warehouse for the afternoon’s load, wouldn’t it make sense for that person to have a light lunch and a bit of a snooze? Imagine how calming this would be.
Moreover, by restoring drivers to full alertness, they would operate vehicles more safely, while lowering their blood pressure. Those packages would be delivered with smiles rather than snarls.
Insurance rates would likely drop, along with stress related absenteeism. It might seem that companies are donating an extra 30 or 45 minutes per day, they’d regain it in more effective and more efficient employees, higher productivity, and lower costs.
To American ears, this proposition seems radical and unprecedented. But it is neither.
Zappos, the online shoe retailer and a company known for pro-employee practices, has a sleep room in its Las Vegas location. Huffington Post, Nike, and NASA are also sleep-supportive organizations, providing at-work facilities for resting and napping.
Another example is Spain, a country with a long and storied experience with the siesta. This is attributable to sweltering summers when it made sense to take a rejuvenation break at mid-day, following a meal. However, the number of reported naps has fallen with increased modernity.
However, I can’t help suspect an under-reporting of current-day siesta-takers, as there may be a growing stigma associated with “flaking out” in the middle of a working day, as there is in the United States.
Ardent nappers will be glad to share their bliss with you. Journalist and author Maya Kroth says her studies took her to Spain, where even in this modern era, she caught the habit. After leaving that land, she beamed that “I took my nap habit with me when I left Spain, and it’s been my secret weapon against burnout and exhaustion ever since.” When time allows she goes home to nap after having lunch, or finds a something suitable, napping in her car or at some other quiet spot.
In Japan, where people get the least amount of sleep at night among all industrialized countries, ad hoc napping is done practically anywhere. This includes dozing off at restaurants and even leaning against cement posts in the subway station.
Since practically everyone is operating under the same culturally sanctioned sleep deprivations, spontaneous napping in public is far more socially acceptable in Japan, than anywhere else in modern countries.
Part of the American prejudice against napping is based on the fact that infants and toddlers seem to do so much of it. Interpreting this as weakness and the absence of self-control, anti-napping authoritarians believe teenagers and grown-ups are getting away with something, slacking, giving less than their best, by seeking small snatches of repose.
They can’t see any good coming from an activity that seems without apparent or immediate benefit to anyone other than the napper. Of course we know this is absurd.
Society definitely should have a positive outlook toward those who manage to become less drowsy, calm, focused, and energized.
For example, it is well known that surgeons make more operational errors later in the day than early in the morning. It is a definite social-good to have our surgeons performing at peak levels at all times.
Imagine having this conversation with a doctor who takes a mid-afternoon nap:
“You know, it’s really infantile of you to insist on napping when you do. What are you, a baby?”
“On the contrary, I’m a responsible professional, and the life I save could be yours or your loved ones, because I insist on being well-rested and alert!”
That truck driver who stays alert instead of nodding off at the wheel averts catastrophe, as well. Is deciding to pull off the road to grab a needed nap a weakness or is it a strength?
Do societies, along with their employers, benefit from this act of accident prevention?
You bet we do!
In the United States, lost productivity from lack of sleep is pegged at $63 billion. While we cannot use any solitary statistic as ultimate evidence, in this case, I presume there is a far greater dollar-denominated loss than this.
And the human loss is unconscionable.
More lives are needlessly snuffed out on our highways by drowsy drivers than by drunk drivers.
Although I have no statistic I can offer about the number of workplace accidents that occur in large part because of tired, drowsy, or distracted workers, the number has to be in the tens of thousands annually, if not more.
The Manufacturing Safety Alliance of British Columbia has a lot to say about the dangers of workplace fatigue:
Studies indicate that the risk of making mistakes at work increases significantly if workers sleep for less than the average (7.5–8.5 hours) or are awake for more than 17 consecutive hours.
The effects of fatigue can reduce a worker’s:
• Ability to make decisions
• Ability to do complex planning
• Communication skills
• Productivity and performance
• Ability to handle stress
• Reaction time
• Ability to recall details
• Ability to respond to changes in surroundings or information provided
Fatigue can also result in:
• Inability to stay awake
• Increased forgetfulness
• Increased errors in judgment
Over the long term, fatigue can result in health effects, such as loss of appetite and digestive problems, and other chronic health conditions, including depression.
These effects can result in:
• Increased sick time, absenteeism, and rate of turnover
• Increased medical costs.
One study has shown that fatigue can have similar effects to drinking alcohol:
• 17 hours awake is equivalent to a blood alcohol content of 0.05 (the legal limit in British Columbia).
• 21 hours awake is equivalent to a blood alcohol content of 0.08
• 24–25 hours awake is equivalent to a blood alcohol content of 0.10
Two important things employers can provide are:
• On-site accommodations, and
• Facilities where workers can nap either during the shift or before driving home.
I began this section by citing two of the perks being touted in today’s job postings—snacks and a fully stocked kitchen.
There is a third perk we often see mentioned. Many employers are quick to offer a “great work/life balance.” Some deliver slightly on this promise.
This can take many forms, though most employers seem to leave this benefit undefined. Flex-time comes to mind as a plus, enabling folks to schedule important life events with ease, such as dentist appointments, picking up and dropping off of kids, and time away to attend graduations and weddings.
What few point to or offer in any way is a meaningful Work + Sleep Balance. Several years ago, then trendy advertising agency Chiat/Day reportedly hung a poster in their offices:
“If You Don’t Come In On Saturday, Don’t Bother Coming In On Sunday!”
This, of course, is not what I mean. Any culture that celebrates sacrificing shut-eye and the inhuman hours its employees rack-up, is the opposite of one that has a proper work/life balance.
It’s simply impossible to enjoy your life when you’re chronically tired. As I’ve shown, it is also unsafe for you and for others.
It is also impossible to generate sizable wealth for yourself in the process, or for your employer.