Since I've worked remotely (from home) for years I can't possibly conceive how most workers are forced into a chair through the entire day. I had the luxury to lay down pretty much any time I wanted. No wonder back problems are so common.

Now running a small office and I put a couch in a separate room specially for resting. Everyone seems to enjoy it for 10-15 minutes a day, nobody abuses it. Whoever thinks people can be productive in a chair 8+ hours a day is deluding himself in my opinion. At least take a decent break then.

As a manager, if I had a weird feeling that someone was "abusing" the couch (by sleeping on it too much), huge red flags would go up for me that I've missed something massive. Like a death in their family, undisclosed problems with a coworker or management, something medical, or general job apathy.

I think I would read "abusing" as something more than just laying on the couch a lot. Like laying on the couch but storing old sandwiches under it. Kicking off shoes with unlaundered smelly socks. Just a general disconnect from the office environment, more than just needing a nap. I would ask the person out to lunch and ask them if they are happy. I think that's always a good place to start to discover/solve complex human problems.

Also, developers are strange compared to normal clock punch jobs. Some of us can't "turn it off" when we get home. This is a work/life balance thing.... but if you've gotta sleep on the couch for a week because you got in a groove where it makes sense, I'm not going to complain. I would probably still quiz on happiness and maybe suggest taking a nap somewhere more comfortable or even taking a few days off and making sure their responsibilities are covered. They might not feel like they could relax because "no one else can solve it" or something. And that in itself is a problem, so time to find a hammock for a few days and come back refreshed with less tickets.

You seem like a great manager.

Thank you! The jury is still out on that, but I try to be a good human first.

I live with ASD and generalized anxiety disorder. Which I think a lot of people in our field (and the world) live with diagnosed or otherwise. I've done pretty well managing people in my own consultancy, but going into my current role I decided to do some digging on Autism in the workplace. I have some traits that aren't great and I wanted to try to get a better set of tools for handling them.

Something that really helped me was this book "Aspergers on the Job"[1]. It's not that people with ASD need special care, it's just that there are tons of things that NT (neurotypical) people can tolerate that would be massively interrupting to someone with ASD. Potentially crippling. Things like meetings with no clear beginning or end, requirements that have shifting goalposts, frequent required all hands meetings, noisy environments, or unclear chain of command.

If I align myself with more of a personal awareness than just a goal based methodology, not only can I get great results from people who aren't NT but that sort of thing is also something that everyone wants and can benefit from. Honestly, most of the productivity killers revolve around meetings and ticket process, but the how and why someone can't participate well varies greatly from person to person.

We want exponential output from our coworkers, collaborators, and partners. In startups that is the difference between living or dying. In my experience, the best way to get that is to be engaging and adaptable. You've gotta play to people's strengths. If you've got a workhorse of a guy who will silently slog through shit you think he hates but the results are fantastic, you might not want to whip that pony to death. If you've got a coworker that doesn't seem to be hitting their own estimates on deliverables, you might need to take a closer look at how those deliverables are being reviewed and communicated, rather than just assuming the person can't hit the mark.

IMO management is more a study in self awareness, compassion, getting things out of the way, and inspiring excitement than it is just making sure tickets are punched. So far I've had good results, but my methodologies aren't exactly well defined so when it fails it can easily be pointed at. Where as no one ever gets fired for managing a scrum with an iron fist.

[1] https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Aspergers-on-the-Job-Aud...

Are you hiring?

We are. I try not to directly cross my HN account with my job. But we are hiring in Austin and San Francisco for JS/Python programmers and data analysts + customer relations.

We have a GPU driven graph visualization product, it's pretty neat. If you like interesting bleeding edge problems, we have plenty. If you are interested shoot me an email at hackernews(at)mechanicalpanda.com with a resume and I'll give you more details.

I freelanced through college and continued doing that after I graduated. Since I was working from home, I was used to taking afternoon naps.

When I finally did join an office, I was surprised that afternoon napping wasn't a thing.

My 20-30 minute naps completely re-energize me and drastically improve my focus. And for some reason, I have extremely vivid dreams during these naps.

I used to book 'meetings' on my calendar and sneak off to the toilet cubicles for an afternoon nap. After a while I could even sleep through the noise of Dyson hand-dryers.

It still disappoints me that napping at work is stigmatised.

All hail the 10-15 min toilet nap and locks on bathroom doors. Yes our country as a whole underestimates and stigmatizes healthy sleep patterns. People and companies which recognize the great benefits of short mid-day brain resets/toxin flushes (naps) are excellent but uncommon. Two cups of coffee won't accomplish what one 10-15 min afternoon nap achieves. It also matters what and how much you eat for lunch because the wrong foods or amounts can cause drowsiness even in well-rested people. I find that vegetarian meals make me less sleepy than meat-heavy meals.

I'm the opposite as far as vivid dreams go, I have no dreams during a nap at all, and it feels like someone actually scrubbed my brain of any thoughts altogether. Feels like waking up with a clean slate.

But the rejuvenation effect is the same.

I also have increasingly vivid, utterly nonsensical dreams when taking an afternoon nap. I do feel more focused and the random dreams are often a funny bonus.

Half the time I'm worried that I'm mumbling something stupid during my naps. My wife did catch me talking about kicking a football when I was taking my afternoon nap at work!

I'd like to think afternoon naps would be a good thing at work, but my worry is that employers would mandate 30-60 minutes of unpaid nap time at the workplace. Thus we'd end up extending the already bad 9-6 days (because 9-5 is now seemingly a thing of the past) and pushing it up to 9-7.

You're right: in general, corporate structures do not trust the worker to independently handle her own time and energy.

Quite common in China, actually.

Yes. I remember in the 90s when I was in kindergarten, a 1-hour afternoon nap is "mandatory". I hated it.

Not just China: in Vietnam it is completely normal to see people take a short nap at their desk after lunch.