office mate dozing off

[le-weekend]

My office mate falls asleep at his desk and it makes me uncomfortable. There's usually a spell in the morning and a longer spell in the afternoon. He'll start to doze off, then spring back awake every 30 to 60 seconds (?), or when someone with loud footsteps walks by. Then he starts fake typing, then goes back to sleep. We are friendly but I would not feel comfortable mentioning it. I feel bad because I know how it is to be super tired at work but this is pretty much every day. He has lots of extracurricular activities, pretty much all voluntary, so I wish he would drop some of them and get more flipping rest. It makes my stomach twist to listen to the silence and occasional snore but I'm not sure why it bugs me so much. I should just tune it out right? This is the boss's problem, not mine right? Ugh.

[thd7t]

I have had so many office mates that would doze a bit.  I've always found it hilarious!  Three come to mind.  The first had kids and stayed up pretty late every night to do some things for himself.  He would fall out around 2:30 most afternoons.  It was an open office (typical in my industry).  It became a running joke for the rest of us.  The second was the owner of a company I was at.  He would go out and indulge a bit too much every so often.  His naps were morning naps.  I liked sending pictures to my wife.  Still, we had work and management was good, so I couldn't complain.  Most recently (February) the person behind me changed some medication and was in an adjustment period.  His naps were fairly random and irritated him more than anyone else!

I'm not totally innocent, either.  When I got my first job, I was fine, unless someone had to bring me somewhere in a car.  For some reason, I couldn't keep awake in cars at that time!  Luckily, there was good public transit!

[Scortius]

My office mate falls asleep at his desk and it makes me uncomfortable. There's usually a spell in the morning and a longer spell in the afternoon. He'll start to doze off, then spring back awake every 30 to 60 seconds (?), or when someone with loud footsteps walks by. Then he starts fake typing, then goes back to sleep. We are friendly but I would not feel comfortable mentioning it. I feel bad because I know how it is to be super tired at work but this is pretty much every day. He has lots of extracurricular activities, pretty much all voluntary, so I wish he would drop some of them and get more flipping rest. It makes my stomach twist to listen to the silence and occasional snore but I'm not sure why it bugs me so much. I should just tune it out right? This is the boss's problem, not mine right? Ugh.

Not your problem, but you may want to do a little introspection to better understand why you feel like it might be. Buy a nice pair of headphones and keep trundling on!

[gooki]

Show you care and get him a pillow.

[marty998]

Draw a moustache on him with a black texta.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Draw a moustache on him with a black texta.

Oh next time you fall asleep at my place, it is on!

:D

[A Definite Beta Guy]

This is the boss's problem, not mine right?

Yupppppp. You can always gossip about it until it eventually finds its way to the office snitch (there's always one). That's how your corporate ju-jitsu this.

[Dave1442397]

I had an older co-worker who used to fall asleep pretty much every day after lunch. She never snored, and nobody wanted to go near her in case she was dead :) 

[Psychstache]

Show you care and get him a pillow.

Draw a moustache on him with a black texta.

There are two kinds of people in the world.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[lizzzi]

Not really your issue. I would just mind your own business. We always had people falling asleep in the office...wasn't anything I obsessed over. Management could deal with it if they wanted to...or not.

[sequoia]

A long time ago, I used to car pool with this guy who has some sort of health problem, and would fall asleep for a few seconds in the office and while driving. I did not know about his problem until I started riding with him. I stopped car pooling with him since I was getting worried about his driving. A few weeks after we stopped driving together, he crashed and totaled the car (he was fine) but I am not sure if it was because he fell asleep.

I kinda feel bad, maybe he would not crashed if he was riding with me. But I could have been in that car when he crashed...

[GuitarStv]

I worked with an elderly asian gentleman for years.  He used to come back from a big lunch, sit in front of his computer monitor, and then doze off for an hour or so every afternoon.  He also always got his shit done on time, never caused problems or headaches for anyone else on the team, and was a pretty good software developer.

Unless the behaviour is personally causing you grief for some reason . . . who cares?

[wbranch]

I have been at my current job for almost 6 months. There is a older guy in a neighboring cubicle that takes occasional naps in the afternoon. Some people joke a little bit about hoping he is not dead. But from what I can tell he gets his work done and nobody has issues with it. If I am still at a job when I am 62 I will be taking naps when I please.

[golden1]

Yep, I shared an office with a man who was a few years from retirement, and he would often fall asleep and start snoring.  No one would call him on it.

A sadder story, the guys on our production floor work 12 hours a day 5 days a week and often 8 hours on Saturday, and I often see them nodding off when there is a free minute.  I don’t blame them, 60-68 hours a week of physical labor will make you tired, and some of these guys are in their 50’s. 

[mm1970]

I worked with an elderly asian gentleman for years.  He used to come back from a big lunch, sit in front of his computer monitor, and then doze off for an hour or so every afternoon.  He also always got his shit done on time, never caused problems or headaches for anyone else on the team, and was a pretty good software developer.

Unless the behaviour is personally causing you grief for some reason . . . who cares?

Yep.  To be honest, as you get older, you get more tired.  It gets harder to sleep at night and a brief nap can do wonders!  (Though I usually opt for a brief walk instead.)

In some cases, it's medical - I had one coworker nodding off in meetings a lot.  Turns out he had sleep apnea and hadn't been treated for it (no insurance).  Once he was on our insurance, he got treatment.  It took about a month or so but he stopped falling asleep.

[Sibley]

http://www.askamanager.org/2017/08/my-coworker-keeps-falling-asleep-at-her-desk.html

[A Definite Beta Guy]

Yep, I shared an office with a man who was a few years from retirement, and he would often fall asleep and start snoring.  No one would call him on it.

A sadder story, the guys on our production floor work 12 hours a day 5 days a week and often 8 hours on Saturday, and I often see them nodding off when there is a free minute.  I don’t blame them, 60-68 hours a week of physical labor will make you tired, and some of these guys are in their 50’s.

Are the guys on the production floor getting overtime? It's one thing if it's a salary worker, but my inner cost accountant screams if we're paying someone overtime money to take a nap.

[wbranch]

Yep, I shared an office with a man who was a few years from retirement, and he would often fall asleep and start snoring.  No one would call him on it.

A sadder story, the guys on our production floor work 12 hours a day 5 days a week and often 8 hours on Saturday, and I often see them nodding off when there is a free minute.  I don’t blame them, 60-68 hours a week of physical labor will make you tired, and some of these guys are in their 50’s.

Are the guys on the production floor getting overtime? It's one thing if it's a salary worker, but my inner cost accountant screams if we're paying someone overtime money to take a nap.

If you are having people work that much overtime naps better be factored into your costs.

[Loretta]

Oh boy.  I have had experience with this scenario, although I work for Uncle Sugar so our tax dollars were paying for the dude’s naps.  The dude, a computer guy near retirement, would seek out quiet conference rooms or wait until the office was empty with coworkers going to meetings, to make himself comfortable and settle in for a snooze.  I went up and up the chain until someone cared to do something about it and the dude came to the conclusion he should retire.  He died a while later. 

[A Definite Beta Guy]

Yep, I shared an office with a man who was a few years from retirement, and he would often fall asleep and start snoring.  No one would call him on it.

A sadder story, the guys on our production floor work 12 hours a day 5 days a week and often 8 hours on Saturday, and I often see them nodding off when there is a free minute.  I don’t blame them, 60-68 hours a week of physical labor will make you tired, and some of these guys are in their 50’s.

Are the guys on the production floor getting overtime? It's one thing if it's a salary worker, but my inner cost accountant screams if we're paying someone overtime money to take a nap.

If you are having people work that much overtime naps better be factored into your costs.

We don't "have" people work that much overtime, people volunteer to work overtime so they can get 1.5X or 2X time pay, or in the case of holidays so they can get 2x time PLUS 2 extra days off, and the shift leaders schedule it that way so they don't get angry union workers filing grievances because ghosts are molesting them (an actual case!).

I might care less if it's a young guy trying to get an extra shift in order to pay for his kid's diapers. Typically (in my experience) it is highly "experienced" individuals in their 50s who have high wages (due to seniority), that end up working a lot of hours (including overtime hours) and can quickly end up making as much as some Regional Vice Presidents. We're not going to pay you that kind of salary to take a nap. If you're getting that kind of salary, it's because you are working 60-70 hours per week and are on call all the time and always come through in a pinch. There are a lot of salary people working overtime in production facilities that DON'T get to take naps on the job and DON'T get overtime pay (because they are exempt).

[marty998]

Draw a moustache on him with a black texta.

Oh next time you fall asleep at my place, it is on!

:D

Oh god... I am not coming to your place for NYE again now. At the risk of dozing off after one too many drinks....

[shenlong55]

Yep, I shared an office with a man who was a few years from retirement, and he would often fall asleep and start snoring.  No one would call him on it.

A sadder story, the guys on our production floor work 12 hours a day 5 days a week and often 8 hours on Saturday, and I often see them nodding off when there is a free minute.  I don’t blame them, 60-68 hours a week of physical labor will make you tired, and some of these guys are in their 50’s.

Are the guys on the production floor getting overtime? It's one thing if it's a salary worker, but my inner cost accountant screams if we're paying someone overtime money to take a nap.

The way I look at it, if you're paying someone for their time instead of their work then that's your mistake.

[A Definite Beta Guy]

Yep, I shared an office with a man who was a few years from retirement, and he would often fall asleep and start snoring.  No one would call him on it.

A sadder story, the guys on our production floor work 12 hours a day 5 days a week and often 8 hours on Saturday, and I often see them nodding off when there is a free minute.  I don’t blame them, 60-68 hours a week of physical labor will make you tired, and some of these guys are in their 50’s.

Are the guys on the production floor getting overtime? It's one thing if it's a salary worker, but my inner cost accountant screams if we're paying someone overtime money to take a nap.

The way I look at it, if you're paying someone for their time instead of their work then that's your mistake.

It's literally federal law.

[shenlong55]

Yep, I shared an office with a man who was a few years from retirement, and he would often fall asleep and start snoring.  No one would call him on it.

A sadder story, the guys on our production floor work 12 hours a day 5 days a week and often 8 hours on Saturday, and I often see them nodding off when there is a free minute.  I don’t blame them, 60-68 hours a week of physical labor will make you tired, and some of these guys are in their 50’s.

Are the guys on the production floor getting overtime? It's one thing if it's a salary worker, but my inner cost accountant screams if we're paying someone overtime money to take a nap.

The way I look at it, if you're paying someone for their time instead of their work then that's your mistake.

It's literally federal law.

Not sure what that has to do with anything, since I didn't say it was a legal mistake.  If you're paying someone for their time rather than their work then you should expect to get exactly what you're paying for.

[FINate]

I frequently napped at work before FIRE. Tech company, open office plan. Didn't bother trying to hide it. Would find a couch or other comfy spot in one of the open meeting areas, curl up, and take a 30 minute nap.

This was especially true when my kids were very young and we were up at all hours of the night, but even before kids would nap in the afternoon if I felt tired.

Amazing how much my concentration, focus, mood, and overall motivation would improve after a quick cat nap. Research clearly shows you're better off taking a quick snooze rather than fighting through it. I (and others) advocated for nap rooms, but HR would never go for it... I think they were concerned these would turn into sexytime rooms rather than the stigma of people sleeping at work, because they eventually installed "nap pods" - terribly uncomfortable for someone my height and too restrictive, so I continued to crash on various couches/ottomans.

[MissNancyPryor]

We have an office snorer.  Not every day but he does sleep in his cube.  His boss doesn’t work in this office and no one cares; the guy is retiring in 2 more months. 

Worst I ever saw was a guy falling asleep and snoring in an all-leaders meeting.  Many round tables were set up in a hotel ballroom and while the VP was speaking some old fart started sawing logs.  I don’t know why I was feeling embarrassed way across the room, but I was mortified.  No one reached out and put their hand gently on his shoulder, no comment from the VP.  They just let him rip. 

[Dollar Slice]

Worst I ever saw was a guy falling asleep and snoring in an all-leaders meeting.  Many round tables were set up in a hotel ballroom and while the VP was speaking some old fart started sawing logs.  I don’t know why I was feeling embarrassed way across the room, but I was mortified.  No one reached out and put their hand gently on his shoulder, no comment from the VP.  They just let him rip.

Not work-related, but I went to a chamber music concert (small string ensembles, you could hear a pin drop) with some friends a couple years back... one of them was visiting from Australia and very jet-lagged. We had each bought our own tickets instead of being in a block of four, so I was across the aisle from him and our other two friends were one seat away from him (with a stranger in between). He fell asleep and started snoring and we were all silently panicking (especially because the notoriously-irascible composer was in attendance). I was trying to figure out if I had good enough aim to throw something at him without accidentally hitting the wrong person, and our other friends were trying to figure out how to quietly wake him without disturbing the stranger between them. He eventually woke up with a loud snort just as the piece was hitting its climax. I've never been so embarrassed to be seen with someone in public...

[MissNancyPryor]

Ha, I just remembered going to see “Good Morning, Vietnam” in the theater on original release.  That is one loud movie with Robin Williams yelling, the super-charged soundtrack, and the huge sounds of war.  There is just a tiny moment or two in the whole movie of pure silence. 

Some guy in the theater chose that moment to let out an ass-tearing fart.  It must have been planned, but the timing was incredible. 

[Arbit Trage]

I start work at 5am everyday, so this happens from time to time. When I used to have a 3rd shift job in a call center, I was also watching my daughter during the day so I was running on about 2 hours of sleep. I may have dozed off a few times between calls...