SPEAKING
FREELY Don't be lazy, snooze at
work By Matt Young
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
Lunchtime at a
state-run Chinese company is slightly laughable.
Two years ago, I found it hard to make it
to the cafeteria without being beaned in the head
by a shuttlecock - a weighted goose feather
contraption used to play something like hacky
sack.
Sure, I volunteered to play
sometimes, and afterwards quenched my thirst with
a nice bite of apple, as drinks weren't readily
available in the canteen.
Worn out and
dehydrated, I'd want to do what most of my
colleagues did thereafter:
take a cubicle nap. The amount of Zs being caught
by my fellow staff - and probably flies - fell
short of the Spanish siesta, but only because
workers didn't waste time commuting home.
I just couldn't sleep, though. There are
virtues to getting personal with office staff, but
publicly bearing my REM behavior is not on my
to-do list. I drool, and have been known to bark,
especially during dull symphonies.
Also,
to me, sleeping on the job is right up there with
going to class in your underwear: You just don't
do it, except in your dreams.
From most
Western employers' perspectives, it surely kills
productivity.
Then again, maybe there's
something to be learned from state-supported
napping. On the opposite end of the spectrum,
progressive businesses are beginning to encourage
cube sleep, according to About.com management
guide F John Reh:
One Connecticut metals company
actively encourages napping by its employees to
"give them a break or a perk, a napping area
where they can unwind". Some companies allow
employees to have a bed in their office.
On that last point, I witnessed this
first-hand at the state-owned company. I was never
entirely clear on this particular employee's
position, but he seemed to be some sort of night
watchman-cum-receptionist. He was definitely in
charge of the copier, fiercely delaying any
necessary replication, so I'm not yet convinced
extra potential sleep reduces grouchiness.
After all, when I saw the guy's bed, I
thought, "Poor bastard, he can never go home."
Nonetheless, Reh argued, one of the
reasons for changing attitudes towards sleeping at
work is the growing recognition of the cost of
sleep deficiency among employees. These include:
Increased errors and accidents
Increased absenteeism
Increased turnover
Decreased productivity
Increased insurance premiums
Increased drug abuse
Excluding those
last two problems, the rest are serious issues
that companies in China face.
And if
Shanghai Pharmaceutical could take back the recent
accidental contamination of one if its anti-cancer
medications by promoting a little more sleep in
the workplace, it probably would.
Now that
I think of it, every time I see a construction
site with adjacent worker tents and beds, I should
be grateful. I probably won't be falling through
that new building's floors any time soon.
Mark Rosekind, co-founder and president of
Alertness Solutions in Cupertino, told the San
Francisco Chronicle that people are "biologically
programmed" to be sleepy twice a day, between 3
and 5 am and 3 and 5 pm. Sleeping less than 40
minutes is a sufficient power nap, he noted, and
anything more is tantamount to taking NyQuil
during the day - unless you can get in a full two
hours for a complete deep sleep cycle without the
boss batting an eye.
In China, the law has
provided for an apres-lunch nap, and reductions in
work time have increased productivity. HR Focus
magazine noted that according to the Chinese
government, there was a 30% increase in
productivity since the effective implementation of
the shorter, 40-hour working week, in 1996 (down
from an average 48 beforehand).
So don't
fear of learning bad lessons about productivity
from the Chinese workplace. Just take the new
terminal expansion at Beijing Capital Airport as a
case in point.
According to The
Independent:
China has designed and built a new airport
terminal double the size of Heathrow's Terminal
Five in four years, which is less time than the
Heathrow planning enquiry.
China aims to build 97 regional airports in
the next decade, of which 45 are scheduled for
completion in five years. The UK has not built a
new airport since City airport was commissioned in
1987.
The UK frets over replacing nuclear power
stations and there is dedicated opposition to a
new coal-fired station. China completes a new
power station every four days.
How's that
for a nation of sleepers on the job?
And
that does it. It's 3:15 pm and my new nap alarm
just went off, courtesy of the home-office.
Matt Young is founder, editor
and publisher of bizCult.com
(http://www.bizcult.com), which seeks to
engage, entertain and educate a community that
wants to do better China business.
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
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