France Sleeping On The Job Again

The French Health Minister, Xavier Bertrand, has asked a very good question – why not nap at work he asks? I must say, I think it’s a fantastic idea. My own preference would be for an eight-hour nap each day. Trouble is my pesky employers might start to wonder what they’re paying me for – oops, they’re wondering that already.

If the French do bring in workplace napping, France will immediately jump higher up my list of the best places to live.

Naturally, the tone of the British newspapers to the suggestion of work-place naps tends to the not entirely sympathetic. Before we all get on our high-horses about work-shy Frogs though, we would do well to remember that the average French worker is 30 percent more productive than the average British worker. The French don’t seem to believe that being at work for 10 hours each day, (because that’s what your manager expects,) 3 hours of which is spent surfing the internet, chatting aimlessly to colleagues, and reading the newspaper is as good an idea as many of their British counterparts seem to.

So when Xavier Bertrand says napping at work shouldn’t be a taboo subject, he is probably right. After all, highly paid executives have been advised for a number of years now that power napping will increase their concentration and productivity.