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工间小憩好处多,公司态度大转弯

工间小憩好处多,公司态度大转弯

Cotton Delo 2011年08月22日
有证据表明,公司对员工在上班时间小憩的限制越来越宽松,甚至鼓励这一做法。是什么推动了公司态度的转变?

    都市午休设施生产商MetroNaps 公司生产的“午休豆荚”

    在肾上腺素泛滥的高端金融领域,要想小睡一会儿是绝无可能的,甚至还会因此被解雇,如果员工想要在下午保持精力充沛,公司可以接受的方式只有喝咖啡和5-hour Energy(美国很受欢迎的一款功能性饮料——译注)这样的功能性饮料。

    但今年1月份,当位于曼哈顿的私人投资基金Kodiak Capital Group开始开拓国际市场时,有人建议,在交易大厅旁边的办公室里安放一张舒适的沙发,让员工可以小憩15到20分钟,以恢复精力。

    Kodiak公司的主理合伙人瑞恩•霍德森表示:“有些人早上8点来上班,下午5点下班,然后去参加橄榄球训练,直到8点才回到家后,还得在半夜处理澳大利亚市场的业务,之后才能上床休息。所以,他们有必要在下午2点左右小憩一会儿。”霍德森估计,现在公司的15名员工中,约有三分之一通常都会小睡一会儿。

    与以前相比,美国人的工作时间普遍延长。有证据表明,公司对于上班时小憩的限制越来越宽松,甚至鼓励员工午睡。人力资源管理协会(Society for Human Resource Management)对600家美国公司进行的员工福利调查显示,2011年,6%的公司在工作场所设置了休息室,与去年的5%相比,有小幅增长。而2011年,美国国家睡眠基金会(National Sleep Foundation)对1,508名成年人的调查结果进一步显示,34%的受访者称,雇主允许他们在工作时间小睡片刻,有16%的人表示他们的雇主专门划定了休息区。

    尽管大多数人在公司的小睡都不会得到管理层的肯定,但在科技行业,小睡算不上什么禁忌。因为科技行业的创业公司通常需要开发人员长时间工作,同时又希望能维持一种无拘无束的、另类的企业文化,来吸引优秀的人才。甚至一些大公司也开始自我标榜,自称鼓励工间小憩。

    其中,谷歌(Google)的山景城总部安装的“午休豆荚(Energy Pods)”瞌睡椅颇为吸引眼球。这款瞌睡椅是一个未来感十足的白色座舱,使用者躺在里面可以避免外界的干扰,并能设置定时器,通过振动或灯光将其唤醒。这款瞌睡椅每个月租金795美元,售价为12,985美元。

    在美国在线(AOL)与《赫芬顿邮报》(Huffington Post)合并后的纽约总部,阿里安娜•郝芬顿当众启动了由她建立的“NapQuest”休息室,房间内也配备了“午休豆荚”瞌睡椅。一位不愿透露姓名的员工表示,三个休息室通常都人满为患。而在以前,《郝芬顿邮报》的编辑想睡一觉得溜到位于六楼的老办公室,而且只能在窗台上将就。

    MetroNaps从2006年开始销售“午休豆荚”瞌睡椅。公司联合创始人克里斯多夫•林德霍斯特表示,他的客户,包括谷歌、AOL赫芬顿邮报传媒集团(AOL Huffington Post Media Group)和思科(Cisco)等,都是“具有远见的公司”,或许它们已经给员工提供了各种激励措施,以改善员工体质,促进合理饮食。但是关注睡眠这一健康的第三支柱可以更直接、更快速地提高员工的工作效率。

    林德霍斯特称:“就算我今天吃得不够健康,也没有去健身,但我第二天依然可以去上班,并且保证高效,但如果我晚上没有睡好,导致第二天白天疲惫不堪,那我的工作效率肯定很低。”

    美国国家睡眠基金会2008年的调查结果显示,在1,000位受访者中,有28%的人表示瞌睡会影响他们白天的工作,每个月至少有几天会出现这种情况。硅谷咨询顾问公司Alertness Solutions的专家凯文•格雷戈里引用他在美国国家航空航天局(NASA)进行的一项研究称,NASA要求跨太平洋航线的飞行员必须小睡40分钟。他们平均休息26分钟,就可以将工作效率提高34%,而反应能力则可以提高54%。Alertness Solutions公司的大部分客户都实行轮班工作制。

    在许多公司,休息室已经成为一种越来越普遍的便利设施,因为它们希望对外宣扬充满趣味和活力的公司形象。在线零售商扎珀斯(Zappos)不仅为员工提供各种额外福利,比如免费午餐,由咖啡师专门调制的免费咖啡,全额的医疗、牙科与眼科保险等,在位于内华达州亨德森市总部的客户服务中心大厅内,公司还设置了一个休息室。被称为扎珀斯“众议院发言人”的贾米•诺顿表示,公司也尝试过“午休豆荚”瞌睡椅,但员工更喜欢舒适的沙发。贾米•诺顿主要负责公司文化方面的管理工作。

    大约18个月后,公司1,200名本地员工将搬至洛杉矶市政厅大楼办公。目前,公司正在考虑是否要将大楼地下室已经废弃的牢房彻底改造成休息室、酒吧,或者其他用途。

    如果公司决心创造一种更具吸引力的工作氛围,休息室可能颇受欢迎,但更传统的公司能否接受休息室还是未知数。波士顿大学(Boston University)的心理学教授、《工间小憩的艺术》(The Art of Napping at Work)一书的作者之一比尔•安东尼认为,公司休息室是否受欢迎与经济状况有密切联系。

    他说:“我敢说,当互联网泡沫破灭时,在工作场合小憩的额外福利也随着经济状况恶化而被撤销。而在经济繁荣时期,就业者能得到更多的特殊待遇和福利,在就业市场上也颇为吃香,此时,雇主们会认为小睡一会儿也没有关系。”

    哥伦比亚商学院(Columbia Business School)教授埃里克•亚伯拉罕主要研究管理技术,他也认为,当经济低迷时,就业市场供大于求,此时,公司会减少所提供的特殊待遇。但他同时也强调,不论经济繁荣还是低迷,如果某些财力雄厚的公司需要某类稀缺那么,它们更可能额外增加一些并非必需品的设施。而这时在工作场所小憩也能被公司所接受。

    他说:“雇主们必须竭尽所能,打造良好的工作环境,才能使员工心甘情愿留下来干活。”

    翻译:刘进龙/汪皓

    In the adrenaline-charged world of high finance, napping might seem like the ultimate taboo, perhaps even grounds for dismissal, instead of an acceptable alternative to coffee and five-hour energy drinks for employees seeking a mid-afternoon lift.

    But when Manhattan-based private investment fund Kodiak Capital Group began to cover international markets back in January, someone suggested getting a comfortable couch for an office next to the trading bullpen so that employees could take 15 to 20-minute power naps.

    "Some guys get to work at 8 [a.m.], work until 5, go to rugby practice until 8, go home, and then they'll work the Australian market in the middle part of the night and go to sleep," says Kodiak's managing partner Ryan Hodson. "Those guys maybe find themselves needing a power nap around 2 in the afternoon." Hodson estimates that a third of his 15 employees now take a power nap on a regular basis.

    Americans are logging longer hours at work than ever before, and there's some evidence that companies are becoming more lenient -- even encouraging -- toward at-work napping. According to an employee benefits survey of 600 American companies conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, 6% of workplaces had nap rooms in 2011, a slight increase from 5% the previous year. Even more suggestive, a 2011 poll of 1,508 adults by the National Sleep Foundation found that 34% of respondents say their employers allow them to nap at work, and 16% said their employers also have designated napping areas.

   While those who doze off at the majority of offices may not have their manager's blessing, napping is not all that taboo in the tech industry, where startups often need their developers to work long hours but also want to maintain a laid back, anti-corporate culture to attract top talent. And a number of tech giants have also begun to tout their nap-friendliness.

    Google's Mountain View campus has received quite a bit of attention for its "Energy Pods" -- futuristic-looking white capsules that rent for $795 a month or sell for $12,985 where nappers can recline out of other people's sight and set timers to wake themselves up with vibrations and lights.

    And Arianna Huffington has publicly plugged the "NapQuest" rooms -- also outfitted with Energy Pods -- that she had built at the headquarters of the combined AOL (AOL) and Huffington Post in New York. One employee at the New York office who asked not to be identified says that the three new nap rooms are usually occupied, and that Huffington Post editors used to sneak up to the sixth floor of their former office to sleep in the grooves of the windowsill.

    Christopher Lindholst, cofounder of MetroNaps, which has been selling Energy Pods since 2006, says his clients -- which include Google (GOOG), AOL Huffington Post Media Group and Cisco (CSCO) -- tend to be "forward-thinking companies" that may already be offering incentives to employees to improve their fitness or eat healthier. But focusing on sleep as a third pillar of health represents a relatively straightforward, short-term way to boost employees' productivity.

    "I could today eat an unhealthy dinner and not go to the gym, but I'll still be able to go to work tomorrow and perform, but if I don't get a good night's sleep and I'm tired tomorrow during the day, my productivity is going to be very low," says Lindholst.

    According to a 2008 poll by the National Sleep Foundation, 28% of the 1,000 respondents said sleepiness interferes with their daytime activities at least a few days each month. Kevin Gregory, a scientist at the Silicon Valley-based firm Alertness Solutions – most of whose clients are companies with employees that perform shift work -- cited a study he worked on at NASA where pilots on trans-Pacific flights were instructed to nap for 40 minutes. They slept for an average of 26 minutes, which led to 34% improved performance and 54% improved alertness.

    Nap rooms have become a more commonplace amenity for companies looking to bill themselves as fun, dynamic places to work. Web retailer Zappos, which offers employee perks like free lunch, free coffee drinks made by baristas, and 100%-paid medical, dental, and vision plans, has a nap room at its headquarters in Henderson, Nev., down the hall from its call center. The company tried out Energy Pods, but employees wanted the couches back, says Jamie Naughton, Zappos's "Speaker of the House," the executive charged with managing Zappos's culture

    In about 18 months, the company will move its 1,200 local employees to Las Vegas's City Hall building, and it's currently deciding whether it will turn the defunct jail cells in the basement into a nap room, a bar, or something else entirely.

    While companies committed to creating an attractive work culture may embrace nap rooms, it's unclear whether it will catch on in the more traditional corners of the corporate world. Bill Anthony, a psychology professor at Boston University and co-author of The Art of Napping at Work, thinks that the popularity of company nap rooms often goes hand-in-hand with economic conditions.

    "When the dot-com bubble deflated, I would say that the perk of napping at work retreated along with the economy," he says. "When people are getting more perks and more benefits and are being sought after and the economy is booming, then employers seem to think napping is okay."

    Eric Abrahamson, a Columbia Business School professor who studies management techniques, agrees that companies tend to offer fewer perks in a down economy when job seekers are plentiful, but notes that affluent firms chasing scarce talent -- in both strong and weak economies -- are more likely to throw in bells and whistles. That's when napping could be embraced.

    "They have to do all kinds of nice things inside the firm to make it enticing to work there," he says.

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