For some companies, a “nap room” may be just the addition needed to increase employee productivity.
Take it from Elon Musk.
Yesterday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO revealed that he’s been camping out in a conference room next to the company’s manufacturing area to ensure that his ambitious production target goals are met.
“I’m personally spending an enormous amount of time on the production line,” Musk said on a conference call with analysts after Tesla released its first quarter earnings results, according to Business Insider. “My desk is at the end of the production line. I have a sleeping bag in a conference room adjacent to the production line, which I use quite frequently.”
The news comes with Telsa’s affirmation that it hopes to accelerate its production abilities in order to turn out 500,000 cars per year by 2018. Thankfully, like many entrepreneurs, Musk is known for his superhuman ability to function on minimal sleep. And when he can get it, the lack of a bed isn’t an issue.
To those who appreciate a clear work/life division (if that even exists anymore), having sleeping facilities at the office isn’t necessarily an ideal situation. The fear, of course, is that it will invite the expectation of longer hours clocked within the company walls and away from home.
On the other hand, however, blending the lines between work and home doesn’t always come with the idea that employees are to eat, breathe, and sleep office life 24/7. In fact, a growing number of workplaces actually encourage employees to nap midday on the job. In doing so, they understand the importance of daytime naps on the well-being and productivity of their employees.
Countless studies have proved the benefits of daytime naps (including that 30-minute power naps can counter the effect of a bad night’s sleep) and some of the world’s most influential companies are jumping on the bandwagon.
For example, The Huffington Post’s New York City office has two rooms designated for napping (Arianna herself recently claimed that nap rooms will be as common as conference rooms). Uber’s San Francisco headquarters similarly features nap rooms. This is in addition to a kitchenette and a living room space so that people don’t have to leave the office come crunch time. Over at Google, employees are free to take advantage of nap pods and shower rooms.
Third-party businesses are even making it easier for other companies to offer their employees the luxury of catching some Zs in the workplace. MetroNaps manufactures popular napping chairs (“EnergyPods”) that are designed specifically for office use. A Toronto student even recently created a pretty amazing under-desk hammock for naps during office hours.
Whether it involves one extreme or the other – facilitating either additional hours at the office (in Musk’s case) or a peaceful break in the day – the ‘sleep where you work’ trend doesn’t seem to be going anywhere in the near future.
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