Blaise Pascal, the great French mathematician and physicist, believed that just about all of man’s problems stem from his inability to sit quietly with himself.
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Blaise Pascal, the great French mathematician and physicist, believed that just about all of man’s problems stem from his inability to sit quietly with himself.
He was writing about 450 years ago, but I think the observation is still valid.
I was reminded of this recently when someone noticed that he seemed to be getting more and more e-mail time-stamped in the wee hours of the morning — the hours between midnight and 4 a.m. that a navy man would call the mid-watch. So he started asking around, and yes, a lot of people are noticing the same thing.
As someone who has sent his full share of those mid-watch messages, I began paying attention to time stamps on my incoming mail. Yup. I get a lot of them, too.
Across North America, surveys show adults are averaging less than seven hours’ sleep a night, while other studies point to difficulties that are occurring due to sleep deprivation: difficulty following discussions, poor judgment in complex situations, finding a new approach to a stubborn problem, the failure to even notice a problem — even, paradoxically, trouble sleeping.
Spread thin by staff reductions, people are often putting in 10- or 12- or 14-hour days for what used to be considered eight hours’ pay. All those extra hours are hard on staff, and can end up hurting the employer, too. Sleep-deprived zombies are hardly the shock troops needed in the drive for corporate success.
The need for the troops to have some slack time — even a nap during office hours — has been pointed out many times. You may remember a book called Slack, which I recommended in the past and recommend still. It’s by Tom DeMarco, a business management consultant who has worked with a number of Fortune 500 companies.
In it, he says all the downsizing that’s been done, the restructuring and cost-cutting in the name of efficiency and global competition, results in costs in human capital. The pressures employees encounter, the fatigue (physical and emotional) that workers feel, ultimately deprive the organization of the success it seeks.
DeMarco debunks “the myth of total efficiency.” Attempting to achieve it can virtually eliminate the creativity most companies need. There needs to be slack for the employees’ good, and for the employer’s as well. Imaginative solutions, products or services come most often from a mind at ease, not from the harried mind of someone running late on an unrealistic schedule.
There is an outfit in New York City called MetroNaps. For a couple of years now, they have been operating two Manhattan sites where a customer can drop in for a 20-minute nap in a specially designed MetroPod.
They also do custom installations of their pods in offices, and have begun franchising MetroNaps locations.
Imagine a large, partially open sphere with a leg support sticking out. The contraption tilts, the customer gets in and stretches out in a sort of recliner chair, the pod tilts back. Soft music begins as a smoked acrylic privacy shield lowers in front of the customer, and the lights dim.
After 20 minutes, the pod wakes the customer by vibrating gently as the lights come up. Then, a quick visit to a “refreshment station” for a facial spritz, a hot, lemon-scented towel, a dab of lotion, and the customer is on his way.
The whole process takes 25 to 30 minutes and costs 14 U.S. bucks. You pay as you go, or you can buy a monthly pass for $65.
And you know what? Business is so good that the company has begun selling installations in Great Britain and Germany. Qantas, the Australian airline, is installing MetroPods in its first-class departure lounge in Sydney.
Within the last couple of months, a franchise has been granted for a MetroNaps location at Vancouver airport.
I admire the entrepreneurial spirit that leads to innovative businesses like MetroNaps, but I’m aghast at a society that makes such businesses necessary.
So make a New Year’s resolution. Avoid MetroNaps. Pick up a copy of DeMarco’s book, which any decent library or bookstore should have.
Read it, then leave it lying around the office so others can pick it up.
And, one and all, have yourselves a Happy New Year!
Korky Koroluk is an Ottawa-based freelance writer. Send comments to editor@dailycommercialnews.com
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