I think quiet rooms or rest spaces are difficult to maintain when there's too few people using them.

At one company it ended up being a temporary closet room with printer supply and all kind of stuff people randomly tossed in to clear the way. At my current company there's so few people using it it smells dusty and closeted to the point it's unusable to relax.

ad-hoc places worked better for me, like small meeting rooms that are unused at noon, actual storage rooms that are actually very clean and tidy compared to temporary ones, or even a park bench when weather is nice enough

One of the reasons I like to come to work late and leave late - in the evening there's always a conference room available to hide in and do some productive work, and there's even a good chance that by 5PM, all my cow-orkers will be gone, so I'll have the whole office room for myself to either work or take a nap first and then continue to ~8 PM.

My SO doesn't approve of this schedule though, so I do this only on days we're not going to see each other.

Google being Google is a bit different, but I'm sure there are a lot of companies where some low-productive employees who've been checking Facebook all day will point fingers at you for sleeping during the butt-sit hours.

I nap in my car. There's not a single nappable spot at my company. And my car is 20 seconds away.

First, not all companies have the finances of Google. Then, offices are still busy when you take your nap. I do mine, in the open space and there is always conversations or movements around, but after a few minutes I don't hear them anymore. Usually I put a 15min alarm and wake after 12min, sometimes I need 30min.

I think the argument FOR napping is the financial one; if 20 minutes of napping gives more than 20 minutes of productivity/efficiency afterwards (which turns out it does, backed by numerous academic studies), then it is worth it.

There's a few things in American culture, in particular, working against it though: our backwards cultural attitude that sleeping is considered "lazy" (USA is one of the most sleep-deprived population) and the fact that working on little sleep is falsely considered a "badge of honor," even though the occurrence of mistakes made by workers is MUCH higher when said workers are sleep deprived.

Good points -- I agree that your suggestions would be optimal for nap-friendly companies.

At this particular workplace, it took 90 seconds or so for me to walk from my desk to my car, so it wasn't a big deal. I was also used to the routine, and preferred the certainty that no one would ever walk in on me.

Would you run the AC?

Sometimes. Managing that issue was definitely something I thought about, and it affected where I parked and what direction I would point my parked car to avoid the sun. Usually I just rolled the windows down a few inches, though, instead of running the AC. I live in a temperate area and I have more tolerance for temperature swings than some. And I was usually setting my alarm for 20 minutes, so I wouldn't be there that long.

I feel guilt for this where I work. It gets to 120f outside here during the summer. It's not great to run the car for just ac, but I benefit from the alone time.

Cars consume very limited amounts of fuel idling so you shouldn't feel guilt for that anymore than you should feel guilt for driving to a restaurant on the way home.

Just avoid doing this in a closed space like a garage, because carbon monoxide can kill you... Otherwise I also use my car as a "calm down" place (for 5-10 mins before coming home, about 5 minutes away from my home), or before having a meeting and so on. Sometimes also for the naps (during work or after work).

For some reason my brain thinks it's dangerous to run the AC when the car is stationary. I don't think this is the case and I'm complecting it with something else - is anyone able to shed some light?

How do you think it is dangerous? ACs do not emit any gases themselves, so except for the CO2 produced by the engine to keep it running it should not be dangerous.

I think CO and CO2 are what I'm thinking of. Maybe if you sat in your car in the garage...?

CO and CO2 produced by the engine is going to come out of the exhaust at the back. Your AC will take in air from the front of the car. In a parking lot or other well ventilated areas, I don't see a big cause for concern.

Also modern cars produce orders of magnitude less emissions its actually somewhat difficult to kill yourself with one now, you essentially have to run a hose from the tailpipe to the cabin.

You still have an engine that is producing a certain amount of power, and this is associated with a minimum rate of production of CO2. Some of the other interesting emissions are greatly reduced in modern engines, but the CO2 production hasn't fallen that much.

I was just going off what I heard from a EMT to be honest, he said those types of suicides were much more successful early in his career.

I work just across the corridor from one of those Google nap rooms, but I don't feel right going inside. And then I end up nodding off in front of my monitor.

But I must say that this only only happens when (a) I am doing something boring and (b) I didn't get much sleep at home. So while cat napping at work is probably better than fighting it, it is more a mitigation strategy than a preferred option.

Providing a quiet, disruption-free and hygienic environment for employees to sleep in seems like quite the commitment to make. I'm all for it, and can just the same understand why it would not happen in most environments.

I can see how taking a break from the regular grind can help things, but not sure that naps are really the answer. Going to a buddy's office to shoot the breeze, or taking a walk around the block seem equally beneficial.