Slashdot Mirror
Half of IT Workers Sleep on the Job
Stony Stevenson writes "According to a new online survey by Harris Interactive, more than half of IT workers say they've fallen asleep at work, while nearly half of techies also are apparently in the mood for love. Forty-seven percent of tech pros admit they've kissed a co-worker, according to the online survey of 5,700 U.S. workers, including 163 techies.
The survey didn't indicate if those work taboos were committed by the same respondents, but in both cases, men were more likely to admit doing both. Forty-nine percent of male techies say they've fallen asleep at work, while only 35 percent of women admitted doing so."
sleep debt is a real phenomenon, and if you're falling asleep at work, you've likely got a large amount of it.
Many people think falling asleep is a sign of "laziness". That's just nonsense, it just means that person needs to get more sleep, or get better quality sleep!
AccountKiller
lie on surveys.
Hacker Media
As an Old Fart, I often take half hour naps in the early afternoon. I'm lucky to have worked mostly at companies with private offices (with doors that lock), but I've done this in cube farms, too.
After thirty minutes of down-time, I grab a cup of coffee and hit the afternoon refreshed, thinking clearly and less stressed.
Civilized societies have siestas.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is insufficiently documented.
Of course, for every nap on the job, I suspect there are a half dozen sleepless nights where an engineer had to cover for an emergency, fix something, help with a high priority client, fly somewhere for an urgent fix, cover a sick employee or return from vacation early. Sorry, but I don't feel guilty if I take a nap here and there when I also often work double shifts, put in seven day weeks (sometimes multiple weeks in a row), cover for staff shortages, log in remotely while on vacation in a hotel, from the family house on thanksgiving, from my home at 3am. . .
Just people trying to offer more excuses as to why they need to outsource jobs overseas, because of incompetent, undereducated, lazy American employees.
Well, it never bothers them that you do. I'm sure some realize it. After 9 years of programming, I have just decided to under promise, over deliver. Lose a contract, or not get promoted? Fuck it, its not worth it. Sanity is worth it. In the end, somebody will pay you for making quality products or providing quality services without having to live at work. So I say it'll be fixed by tomorrow afternoon, and fix it at 10am. They'll be more appreciative, and you got more sleep so you can clock more quality work hours. I like to say that 25% of the skill of a developer is managing expectations. *Technically*, we could write a word processor in assembly on 386, but telling somebody who is responsible for purchasing computer equipment and software tools that is suicide. Having people realize how fucking hard and taxing your job is and how challenging it is to fix things that appear small to a customer or designer is key to keeping people around you happy to provide you the proper environment to kick ass.
.. they might cut you some slack on short term hack jobs to create better long term infrastructure, monitoring, fixes, etc.
One other thing that people forget is that frequently the problems that crop up that programmers and IT folks have to fix are problems that may not have occurred had the work force been better rested. Near the end of a particular development cycle, we were working 12 to 14 hour shifts 6 or 7 days a week, alternating between folks during the day and folks at night. Near gold, it was basically a team would come in and have to fix the bug caused by the folks the earlier 12 hour shift caused fixing another bug. Everyone was so overworked that nobody could make rational steps towards fixing things properly. Seemed to me that we could have finished off earlier were we not pressed into 'work every hour you're awake' mode for the last 4 weeks. You end up causing problems that you then have to stay up even more hours to fix.
If your clients dont know when you fix things or do things for them, change that. Send them an email timestamped at 1am when you fix the problem. Mention it offhand when you discuss the resolution of the problem. You'd be surprised how willing people are to compromise or help you change the situation so you don't need to be on call for them 24/7
"Old man yells at systemd"
Shortly after I quit smoking, I realized the same thing. If you smoke regularly, you get the regular hourly ten minute break, once you stop, the breaks stop as well. It took me at least three months to realize that the reason I was less productive was not the post-quitting stress, but in actuality the lack of breaks. I have since started to take hourly breaks no matter what I do, and its made a world of difference.
I'm not built for napping. For starters, if I try to doze off it usually takes me a long time. If I'm in a boring meeting, it's much easier. Hell, if the meeting is at the end of the day and I'm just trying to hold off so I can get home, by the time I'm home I no longer feel the need. If I DO manage to sleep during the middle of the day, it usually throws me completely off. I'll end up sleeping for maybe four hours before popping awake, then I'm not able to crash at a normal time that night and I can end up sleeping extra long. I usually do seven hours but if my sleep pattern is disturbed, like with a nap, I could end up sleeping for 10 hours. It's very weird.
I don't disbelieve the benefits of getting a good nap in, I just don't think I'm physiologically capable of it.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
And yet, somehow, more than half of all techs have fallen asleep at work. Gosh, that's interesting. Those non-male non-female techs sure must do a lot of sleeping on the job!
My bicyles