Can I Nap At Work?

published 2 September 08

Dear Cubicle Coach

Sometimes I like to take a snooze for 15 minutes during my lunch break, either at my desk or occasionally in the stairwell. Bad career move?

Dear Sleepy

CC's first job featured a Dickensian colleague who kept his door shut from precisely 12:15 to 12:45, and it was known to all simply that "Hal is napping." (Hal also ate a tuna-fish sandwich for lunch every single day for 45 years and eventually died of mercury poisoning, no joke).

But a power nap is something else. Just curious about the stairwell: Do you sleep standing up, like a pony? These new open floor plans make it so difficult to handle such essentials as clipping nails, logging onto tmz.com, or catching up on needed Zzzs. CC himself, when the vapors hit, has mastered the art of swiveling his chair away from the throngs, plopping his feet up on the desk, thinking of the beach, and disappearing for a half-hour or so. Not a crime.

model in a sleep pod at the google offices in mountain view california