Sleep - Management, Employees and Productivity

According to the CDC, insufficient sleep is a public health epidemic. Lack of sleep may lead to poor concentration and reduced ability to remember things.

Sleep is important to your health and work life.  Sleep insufficiency linked to motor vehicle crashes, industrial disasters, medical and other occupational errors.  Unintentionally falling asleep, nodding off while driving, and having difficulty performing daily tasks because of sleepiness all may contribute to hazardous outcomes. 

Persons experiencing sleep insufficiency are also more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, and obesity, as well as from cancer, increased mortality, and reduced quality of life and productivity.

Sleep insufficiency may be caused by broad scale societal factors such as round-the-clock access to technology and work schedules, but sleep disorders such as insomnia or obstructive sleep apnea also play an important role.

Insufficient Sleep Is a Public Health Epidemic

Related articles

• Lack of Sleep for Teens Linked to Risky Behavior (webmd.com)
• Sleep-deprived teens engage in riskier behaviour (cbc.ca)

Personal web surfing at work - Allow or Not?

Per research paper Temptation at Work by Harvard Business School, employers should not prohibit the Internet and yet leave it available. Instead, employers should either remove it entirely or, when doing this is impractical, allow employees a certain amount of time for personal Internet activity. Perhaps lunch-breaks can be somewhat shortened to accommodate “surf-time”.

Is the time to replace coffee breaks with internet breaks so employees can do online banking, etc...?  With the new generation of mobile phones & internet access, management control the old way is not possible, and turning off the Internet is not feasible anyway.  The real issue is, how do management motivate employees to remain focus at work?

Social Media, Smartphone and Change

The explosion of social media, mobile devices and the rapid development and deployment of apps change the way organizations disseminate, communicate and market to their clients.  As such, new job roles and skills are required to implement and make effective use of new communications tool.

Related articles

• HHS @ SXSW Web Team or Ambassadors for Change?
• Boomers Getting Social with Smartphones (slipperfits.wordpress.com)