Ask HN: What benefits can I provide to improve employee’s sleeping habits?

18 points by jackcodes 6 years ago | 17 comments

I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on the industry recently, and this has nicely coincided with being in the running for a leadership position at a company bigger than I would have expected.

Part of my job role will be to help develop employee benefits packages and I’d like to make sure that quality of sleep is high up on that list. (Why aren’t more companies prioritising this?)

There are some obvious ones I can think of;

- Yearly bedding allowance

- Curtains/shade allowance

- Sleep cycle app subscriptions

Alongside ‘softer’ workflow choices;

- Ensuring no standard work emails/slack sent after 8pm. Would like to go further with this, but it’ll be in a developing economy so expectations will be less favourable. We’re not yet France.

For what it’s worth, I’d also appreciate validation (or dissent) to the idea in general. It’s not something I’ve heard of happening anywhere and having not been through a typical path to leadership I might just be missing something obvious on why this isn’t standard.

ThrowawayR2 6 years ago |

Assuming you're in the software industry or some other technical profession, provide a nap room at the office, at least one per 50 people. If you don't like the term, call it a wellness room. Design it properly (ability to dim or turn off lights, away from heavily trafficked areas and other noise sources, etc.) Discourage your staff and management from penalizing or gossiping about people who use it.

Employees who had a bad night of sleep, employees with newborns that kept them up at night, employees with migraines or are just feeling ill, employees with sleep disorders (increasingly common), etc. will thank you and the company will be compensated by productivity recovered from these people not being tired. It's not exactly a radical or untested idea either; a quick googling for "nap room at office" finds plenty of companies that implement this benefit, e.g.: https://blog.kickresume.com/2018/09/10/these-7-companies-enc...

sethammons 6 years ago | |

Wellness room for migraines. Mind blown. That would be so helpful when I've gotten them at work (fortunately, a very minor occurrence for me).

mathieuh 6 years ago | | |

I get migraines when I have the sun on my head and bright lights around and where I work has recently moved offices. Now next to a river in an office seemingly made entirely of glass. It’s impossible to see anything so now everyone just shuts the blinds.

I now spend about an hour a week with a crazy swirly pattern obscuring most of my vision. A dark room where I could sit and recover when this happens would be incredibly helpful.

The architect seems to have tried to create an Ikea showroom rather than an office where people will be staring at screens all day.

gshdg 6 years ago |

Reasonable expectations for hours worked. Flexible work hours.

Develop good relationships with people. Talk to them about what interferes with getting a good nights sleep. It’ll be different for everyone (screen time, family commitments, partying, stress-induced insomnia, long commutes, etc.) Figure out ways to alleviate the impact of each one without asking people to give up things they value.

DoreenMichele 6 years ago |

Maybe deemphasize free coffee at work, or at least limit it to mornings. Caffeine dependency can be a vicious cycle that interferes with sleep and that sleep deprived people use as a crutch.

(I'm caffeine dependent because it helps with respiratory problems. But it's pretty well established this contributes to sleep issues and is a hallmark of a workaholic culture that respects people for pulling all nighters and the like.)

Give an adequately long lunch.

I used to nap in my car sometimes at my corporate job. But you can't do that if there's no time available in your schedule.

Do your best to not impose sudden and unnecessary shift changes for bullshit reasons.

My corporate job would have everyone come in early the Wednesday before Thanksgiving -- a major US holiday -- so they could close down early. I worked the evening shift normally from 3pm to 11pm and had to be in at like 6am to noon that day. I didn't have enough seniority to blow it off by scheduling it as time off.

They could have found some other way to handle that. I absolutely hated having a gun to my head in that way. It was awful.

I feel like giving benefits designed to dictate sleep hygiene is a bit draconian, but you can certainly work on staying the hell out of their way if good sleep habits is a thing they value.

Young, healthy people often don't care and don't really need to. But if there's a baby at home, if they are older or have health issues, they will appreciate you getting your boot off their neck and staying out of their way in this regard.

borplk 6 years ago |

Things like app subscriptions and so on are just distracting gimmicks that companies provide to tick the box without taking the real actions that takes guts to take.

- Pay them good money, they are adults, this replaces all your "allowances"

- Give them flexible work hours

- Ensure no work, sms, email, slack, etc is expected implicitly or explicitly after work hours

None of this is hard except companies don't genuinely want to commit to these benefits. They want the benefit to come to them for free. So instead they go chasing gimmicks.

jackcodes 6 years ago | |

I wouldn't have an issue committing to those benefits you've listed. Agreed, app is a gimmick although I'm not too sure the other two are quite as far into the gimmick category.

It seems like you've taken it as either/or rather than 'and'. I want to offer all of the above things AND offer any specific benefits that also offer sleep enhancement.

woolybully 6 years ago |

Good on you for considering this. I had one job where the company owner loved his naps, so napping was tolerated at the company. Half the people would have a 30 minute nap after lunch. Heaven! Made the afternoons so much more pleasant, and more productive. I'd just set my watch alarm and put my head on my desk (with proper drool precautions).

mvind 6 years ago | |

Did you work in an open office?

mdorazio 6 years ago |

I like your intentions here, but sleep is one of those things that I don't think an employer is really going to make much of an impact on. The biggest thing you could probably do is push for later morning start times and more remote work so employees can sleep in longer. Getting people to bed at more reasonable times and eschewing quality of sleep impactors (blue light, eating late, noise, etc.) often comes down to lifestyle choices and living conditions pretty far outside work.

digitalutopia 6 years ago |

Many people have never received any sort of education or training on the importance of sleep habits in person. It’s easy to disregard an article. I’d look into hiring a sleep specialist to do a QA session with your company, and also consult you on the benefits question.

sevilo 6 years ago |

I don’t care about new bedding or subscription app, I just wish there’s an employer who’d let me take a good 15-30min nap during lunch, without being judged. I secretly sneak into my car to nap and it makes a huge difference in my afternoon productivity.

clintonb 6 years ago |

Why are you prioritizing sleep? What data supports this prioritization?

I’ve had companies offer wellness benefits for fitness classes, massages, etc. Sleep benefit sounds nice, but it seems a bit too encroaching into my literal personal space.

If you want people to sleep more, give them less work. Disconnect them from Slack and email, as you’ve proposed.

The sleep benefit doesn’t quite sit well with me.

P.S. Just because the company offers the benefit doesn't mean people will make use of the new bedding, app, etc.

jackcodes 6 years ago | |

Point taken - this is as valuable an opinion as any other. I'd love for an empoloyer to care about it enough to 'put their money where their mouth' is when it comes to making sure I'm looking out for myself sleep wise, but I wholeheartedly accept this stance.

ref:

[0] Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2656292/

[1] Need for Sleep: the Impact of a Night of SleepDeprivation on Novice Developers’Performance https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.02544.pdf

[2] Personal anecdata

rajacombinator 6 years ago |

Some mild to severe big brother-esque connotations to this - ie. “your sleep is to benefit the company.” Just pay the employees better and/or reduce hours and stress.

jrowley 6 years ago |

Give everyone a copy of why we sleep, and then have a chapter by chapter book club over a couple of weeks?

I applaud you for helping people with their sleep.

wyntuition 6 years ago |

Literature recommendations on good sleep hygiene, including no screens 1 hour before bed to sleep meditation would be helpful.