the napping hideout, the cat protector, and other stories of sleeping at work

by Alison Green on July 22, 2024

Last week, we talked about napping at work and here are 10 of my favorite stories you shared.

1. The hideout

I worked at a big box home improvement store for a few years, and we hired a couple young guys to work the lot. Bring back carts, help customers load heavier items or large orders, flag for the forklifts, etc. Well, these two, no one could ever get them on the radios for help. They would just disappear, then show up much later claiming they had been busy helping a customer. This went on for weeks.

Our assistant manager went looking for them one day when we were slammed and had a bunch of customers needing loading assistance. She’s walking the aisles trying to find them, and calling them on the radio over and over. As she’s walking through the insulation aisle, she hears herself calling them on the radio. About two shelves above her head. Turns out, these two had built themselves a hideout in the upper shelves of the insulation aisle, where they would climb up to nap and hide from work whenever they felt like it (which was apparently 95% of their shift).

2. The medical concern

I did a brief stint in data entry, and it was so mind-numbing and physically uncomfortable (noisy, smelly, bad chair) that I’d get sleepy. The complex was massive, and one day I found a little nook with an exit door, a sort of unused hallway off another unused hallway at the end of an unused wing. I spent my lunchtime and breaks in that nook, lying on the floor on my side. Until the day two security guys rushed down the hall, one carrying a first aid kit, and woke me up, then grilled me about what I’d eaten that morning and if I needed to go to the hospital. I’d been spotted on a security camera, and looked “sprawled out, like you died.”

3. The drywall

One day I heard a huge thud from Frank’s office. I went to see if he was all right. He said he was. But Frank was known to fall asleep at his desk. I noticed a fresh hole in the drywall by his office chair. Later when he was out I went into his office, placed his chair on its side, and gently slid it up against the wall. Bingo! The caster lined up perfectly with the new hole in wall, which was even the same distinctive shape. The thud I heard had been Frank falling asleep and flopping out of his chair, running it into the wall.

4. The phone call

I used to have a coworker who would go into a small closet, sit on the floor with his knees up and phone positioned just so on his ear and then fall asleep. So that if someone opened the door, they would just think he was doing the very normal action of taking a phone call in a small dark closet…

5. The family nap

I was training a group of new hires in a Teams meeting. One guy had his camera on and was working from his bedroom. At one point during my presentation, his wife/girlfriend came into the bedroom and flopped on the bed for a nap. Then their dog followed her and curled up on the bed. A couple minutes later, he got up from his chair, crawled into bed, and started napping with them. I don’t think he realized his camera was on.

I turned his camera off and continued with my presentation. He had to redo the training with a one-on-one trainer who made him leave the camera on the whole time to make sure he wasn’t slipping away for a snooze again.

6. The cover

At my first job, which was an apprenticeship program at a media company, we had a monthly rotation. So, every three months, I would be on a team that refused to give apprentices any work. Since this was a media company, we had private suites for phone/Zoom interviews. They weren’t soundproof but the doors were fully opaque, and you would usually determine if someone was in a “phone room” by listening at the door.

So! I would go in, pull up a recording of an old interview on my phone, play an “office keyboard typing ASMR” video on YouTube, and take a nap. Anyone who came to listen at the door would hear me asking questions and typing, with the interviewee on speaker. Worked like a charm.

7. The box

We found a temp sleeping in a large box on our manufacturing floor. He was angry that we had woken him up!

8. The microscope

I worked in a clinical lab one summer. The lab technologists had stereoscopic microscopes at their cubicle desks. One of the technologists apparently was on a PIP because she was caught napping at her desk. She didn’t just lean back in her chair or lay her head on her desk, though. She would sit at the microscope and would nap with her head (maybe closed eyes even?) resting on the eyepieces of her microscope in an effort to look like she was working when she actually was sleeping.

9. Chad

I work for a public accounting firm. During tax season, everyone works extra hours, but we have a lot of flexibility – we have core hours we are supposed to be there, and then you can come in early or leave late, whatever you need to do to get your work done.

Several years ago, a manager popped her head in my office door one evening about 7:00. She asked if “Chad,” who had the office next to mine, was still there, or if he had left for the day. I said I hadn’t seen him since around 6, and she said, “His light’s off, he probably went home. If you see him before I do in the morning, tell him I need to ask him something about a client and to come see me.” She went back to her office and her work. About 10, she went home. She walked through the office, noting all lights were out. She set the alarm, locked the door and left.

A few hours later, one of the partners got woken up by a call from the alarm company. There was movement in the building. The partner met the cops there, and they found Chad … who had turned off his light and laid down on the floor behind his desk about 6:00, thinking he’d take a quick nap. He woke up eventually, and decided he’d make some coffee and then work an hour or so before going home to change for the next day. He never thought about the alarm being set. Until the cops came in. Poor Chad – it took years for him to live that one down.

10. The cat protector

Previous warehouse job, was really chill, kinda miss it, but they had a shop cat, and that fluffy orange menace would hop onto my shoulder and start purring while I was eating lunch. One day I woke up four hours after lunch with the fuzzy feline purring on me non stop. It was later reported to me that each time someone came in to wake me up, they got hisses to ears and paws bapping at their face to get them to leave me be. Everyone took the hint from the orange menace.

Naturally wasn’t paid for my nap, but I really couldn’t care less if I was or not, that was the best nap I had in my life. Only time I fell asleep at work as well. And I swear that nap fixed me for at least a few weeks after.

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    1. Goldenrod*

      Yeah, honestly, once his significant other and cat were curled up on the bed, what was that guy supposed to do? He’s only human! The nap would have been calling to him so strongly at that point.

    2. Brain the Brian*

      He’s lucky he wasn’t fired for it, honestly! A new hire taking a visible nap on camera during a training session? Gone, where I work. This is almost exactly why we have probationary periods.

        1. Brain the Brian*

          And, like… not just a visible nap, but a visible nap *with his romantic partner, in their bed*? I mean, good heavens. This company must have extraordinarily compassionate managers or be desperate for someone in his position.

      1. Uranus Wars*

        I mean, I realize he should have been fired while at the same time 100% acknowledging I would have wanted to do the exact same thing.

  2. Veryanon*

    Years ago, I worked in HR for a retail company that manufactured some of the clothes it sold. We’d get these giant bolts of fabric in the warehouse (they looked like those roles of carpeting you see sometimes). We discovered that several of the employees would lay the bolts horizontally in secluded areas of the warehouse and nap on top of them. The bolts of fabric were comfortable, but it was a safety issue, especially if someone else tried to move the bolt with a forklift, not knowing that anyone was sleeping on it. I gave them points for ingenuity, though.

    1. Beth*

      Back at my first career, I was working in the costume shop of a major opera company. I had a brutal commute — 4 hours each way — and did a lot of power napping on breaks and at lunch. I became an expert at “setting” my brain to wake up after a set number of minutes (usually 10-12 for breaks and 20 for lunch). It wasn’t an issue with my managers and colleagues, since I was napping on mandatory break time; I did get a certain amount of teasing, which was fine.

      At first, I just put my head down and napped at my sewing machine, but then I realized it was a lot more comfortable to stretch out in the fabric storage area in the back room. I did NOT sleep on top of the fabric, but the room had a carpet and was quieter and darker than the workshop.

      1. Smurfette*

        My sister once worked for a tiny company (2 people) that made costumes for stage shows, including dancers and strippers (the neon lycra jockstraps were especially memorable).

        The owner (a sweet person but incompetent business owner) used to take on much more work than they could manage and my sister frequently collapsed into an exhausted sleep on top of a pile of completed costumes. I was so happy when she left that place.

      2. RowdyRed*

        At a previous theatre job, there was a “Guy Friday” that would do the odd things around the theatre like assist with the construction of sets (he couldn’t), paint the conference room a basic white (he missed), or sweep the theatre aisles (“what do I do with the dirt?”). Grown man-baby that was HIGHLY incompetent. Bless his heart.

        Anyway, he, too would disappear for hours at a time. Where’s Waldo?
        One of the office coordinators found him snoring in the scene shop. Seems he had set up his own bedroom in the prop room where large furniture (divans, chairs, faux beds) was stored.
        Not only was he not fired (at that time), he resorted to sleeping in the wig room or the costume shop. Sprawled out on the floor in all his short-pants glory.
        Sheesh!

      2. Hannah Lee*

        A family down the street has* an orange cat. When I first moved into my house, it took him about 3 days to decide he wanted to live at my house. While normally I’d welcome a self-adopting pet like that … I’d share with his OG family, really I would … one of my friends who lives nearby is VERY allergic, and it would have essentially made my home off limits to her.

        He spent years plotting ways to make realize his goal, taking advantage whenever I’m coming and going, and sneaking into any and every door possible. There have been more than a few instances of him sneaking into my garage when the door is open, thinking he can make an end run into my back door. A few of those times I didn’t notice him, and he wound up stuck in there when I hit the door remote from my car or in the house, fortunately for no more than a hour or so. Or popping up out of a back room when I was sitting at my kitchen table, after he apparently snuck in while I was carrying groceries.

        My two favorite times were 1) a day I came home from work and found him lounging in the afternoon sun on the cushion of a chair … on my fully screened porch with a door that was firmly shut – no idea how he got in.
        2) the time a very sweet little boy 4 or 5 came trick or treating on Halloween. Boy randomly decided that instead of just grabbing a candy bar, he wanted to come in and play with me. In he marches past me and my basket of candy, and hops up on the sofa with a happy bounce. As I and his mother were trying to gently shepherd him off the sofa and back to the door, and she was sweetly apologizing “I have no idea why he decided just come on in and make himself at home” out of the corner of my eye I see an orange flash … as Mr Kitty ran through the front door, bounded up the stairs to the 2nd floor and straight onto my bed as though that was his usual spot.

        Such a cool cat, very friendly, sweet and funny, and curious, with a super loud purr. I’d hang out with him outside when I can.

        *had? haven’t seen him for a while

      1. Ladybug*

        First thing I thought of when I read #10: “Was this Jorts?” But then I decided that Jorts is way too chill to hiss and/or bap anyone. Bless his heart.

        1. Elizabeth West*

          He does *tweet* about screaming once in a while, but he usually has a good reason.

      1. Desk Dragon*

        This is why someone I follow elsewhere refers to her cats as “snooze wizards”!

        1. CatMouse*

          we call our “sleep rocks” and falling asleep to them purring/generally sitting on us is being sleep rocked

          1. Delayed Sleep Phaser*

            This will be my new way to refer to my cats, who both love to sleep on us. They are absolutely and unapologetically sleep rocks.

    7. Galadriel's Garden*

      As the proud owner of two Orange Menaces who menace in their own very different, very special ways…this is peak orange behavior, and why I love orange cats so very, very much <3

    9. On Fire*

      Our cat is a tuxedo rather than ginger, but a few weeks ago when we got home from church, Spousal Unit flopped back on the bed, still fully dressed, and fell asleep. Cat got up on his lap and curled up. I went about my business but checked on him every so often — and each time she would give me The Look that meant I shouldn’t wake him. (He’s her person. I’m the Spare Human.)

  4. Pastor Petty Labelle*

    Awww I love the kitty protector. Leave human alone, she needs her sleep.

    3. just some guy*

      I assumed “cat protector” would be a human who protects cats and that sounded pretty good already but it turned out to be even better.

  5. datamuse*

    Way, way back in the day (we’re talking late 90s) I worked at Amazon. During the holiday season anyone in the corporate offices who didn’t have much to do was asked to come help in the warehouse. (I suspect this doesn’t happen anymore, but I also haven’t worked there in many years.)

    I was amused by a sign on the wall in the warehouse warning people not to stand, sit, or sleep in the forklift lane. Reading these stories, I feel like now I understand why that sign was worded that way.

  6. CommanderBanana*

    #6, I salute you. That is true ingenuity.

    #10, I love that the shop cat deployed the pappity paps to protect your nap.

      1. CommanderBanana*

        I’d buy that shirt. “Big Orange’s Snoozing Service – Pappity Paps to Protect Your Nap!”

    1. AnonEMoose*

      All I can say is, I will be Very Disappointed if no one adopts “Fluffy Orange Menace” as their new user name.

  8. Juicebox Hero*

    Ugh, the thought of microscope oculars digging into my face or especially eyes is not very condusive to napping!

    1. Slow Gin Lizz*

      You gotta wonder how extremely sleep-deprived that person must have been that they could fall asleep like that.

      1. Anon for this*

        I had a job teaching young adults (18-21). One of our students had some sort of night job, and was falling asleep in class. My boss started making him stand up in class (not as punishment, just to keep him awake) and he literally fell asleep standing up. More than once. I’ve never seen that happen any other time, before or since — I can only assume he was terribly sleep-deprived.

        1. Reluctant Mezzo*

          One of my brothers could sleep while in the chain to drop out of a perfectly good airplane…(82nd Airborne).

        2. Freya*

          One year during production week for the school musical, I fell asleep while walking to chemistry class. Walked straight into the wall instead.

    2. PostalMixup*

      When I was in high school my bus arrived at 6:30am. I’d get up in the pitch dark, take my shower, sit down in front of my dresser to pick out my clothes, and wake up half an hour later with a line across my forehead from the edge of the drawer. And I’d have missed my bus.

      1. Brain the Brian*

        6:30? Lucky! Mine came at 6:10. It was awful. (I frequently napped in certain classes — but never with microscope oculars digging into my eyes…)

      2. Elizabeth West*

        When my ex and I worked at the same place, we had to get up at 4:30 to make it to work on time. I would get dressed and get in the car and then go back to sleep in the passenger seat until we arrived (he drove, obviously).
        One morning I missed a mama bear with two cubs walking across the road because I was asleep. He was watching them and forgot to wake me up. I was so MAD!

    3. kudzoo*

      I used to work night shift on a factory floor where one of the jobs was scanning parts for defects under the microscopes. It was an unpopular job. It was fairly routine to hear yelps from the area as workers nodded off, then jabbed their eyeballs onto the eyepieces.

  9. Juicebox Hero*

    The cat: “look, this human is serving as my comfy pillow, and no one messes with my comfy pillow!”

      2. Jill Swinburne*

        We call it ‘feline paralysis’ – as in, “can’t get up, come down with a bout of feline paralysis “

      4. Action Kate*

        “Cat on lap” is a valid reason to be excused for just about anything below emergency level in our house.

        1. Insufficient Sausage Explainer*

          Trapped Under Cat is my error code. My bestie refers to its as a TUC situation.

      5. CommanderBanana*

        We have a rule in my house that if the dog is on your lap, you’re allowed to ask the other person to go get you stuff.

      6. Delayed Sleep Phaser*

        In our house we say we’ve been “becatted”, and our kitties are so snuggly that I’m frequently stuck.

  10. Never mind who I am*

    A couple of stories: Once the director of the office came in to find an employee asleep at her desk. The director asked her if she was ok, the employee said yes and went back to sleep. She was gone soon thereafter.

    I was at a medical residents’ meeting once and if I didn’t actually fall asleep I came really close. Afterwards I apologized to the person in charge, who replied “you’re not the first and you won’t be the last.”

    And finally: I used to sleep though lunch, but then I got CPAP and things went a lot better.

    1. Pucci*

      Sleeping in conferences is routine, as is sleeping during scientific talks presented at 4:00 pm

      1. Beany*

        Back when I was an undergrad, I’d attend these weekly seminars at 3 pm. Small room (capacity ~30 max), comfortable low-slung leather chairs for everyone, hazy sunlight streaming in from the side window … I definitely nodded off a few times. But so did the department chair, so I was pretty safe.

        1. Reluctant Mezzo*

          When I took a tax class (right after lunch) another student and I used to argue with each other just to stay awake.

    2. MigraineMonth*

      One of my friends ended up covering a lot of roles at work. She was traveling so much for work and working so many hours that she started falling asleep during meetings. Her manager’s solution? Make her stand during meetings.

      2. Perihelion*

        Damn, my drill sergeants did the same thing. Turns out you can fall asleep while standing up.

        1. Atlantic Ocean Rower*

          You can also fall asleep when ocean rowing (yes, I knew it might sometimes be dull but I thought physical actively would prevent sleep. It does not.)

          1. Chirpy*

            You can also fall asleep while bicycling. Luckily I jerked awake just in time to not fall over.

    3. Hastily Blessed Fritos*

      Glad the CPAP worked for you! I know so many people who didn’t know how badly sleep deprived they were until doing a sleep study.

    4. Boof*

      Yeah I have some sympathy because as a teen and young adult I had terrible insomnia that then resulted in some pretty extreme daytime sleepiness that I sometimes tried to manage with a nap (though again my problem was more trouble falling asleep so I’d have to be in a SUPER permissive situation, like back of a warm dark lecture hall with a boring lecture + extremely sleep deprived or something, before I’d unintentionally fall asleep) – once or twice at work during lunch under a desk in an empty office (can’t say it helped and it felt weird so I stopped – work also loved me given at that time I was basically entry level filing for a law firm / stuff that’s hard to fill and I was an eager beaver for a summer).
      Now if I’m falling asleep at my desk I know it’s time to go home, but my sleep issues are under control. Frankly I think daytime excessive sleepiness is like any other medical/behavior issue; once or twice is an accident, if it’s a chronic the person needs to work out what they need to do to be alert during work tho. For me I have to practice scrupulous sleep hygiene (NO SCREENS BEFORE BED; NO CAFFEINE AFTER NOON / 12 HRS BEFORE SLEEP PLAN; ideally cuddly a small child or animal to sleep for 45 min then I’m probably out too because frankly only being a parent really made me sleep at night since I have kids who absolutely want mom cuddling them to sleep and that is the most soporific thing ever)

      1. Snow Angels in the Zen Garden*

        Being a parent made me sleep at night for the first time ever, mostly because I was so exhausted all the time. Kind of a “blessing/curse” situation.

  11. CowWhisperer*

    #1. Pretty sure I worked for the same company. We had a new hire who was a middle aged man. He would also disappear in the middle of his shifts. We never did figure out where he went – but the problem fixed itself when everyone in the department reported him to the department supervisor or assistant store manager when we needed coverage and he was MIA.

    Of course, I also threatened to give another coworker who was worse than completely useless because they created more work through incompetence $40.00 to punch out and go to the movies for rest of their shift. It was Easter. All they were focused on was finding the Easter eggs hidden in the store by management – and the last time they were that distracted – they put the wrong tint into a different tint dispenser which led to a 3 hour cleaning process.

    I ended up giving them an easy job that could fit around egg hunting – which they still screwed up. Good times.

    1. Mother of Corgis*

      I wish our location would have had an easter egg hunt. However, my brother worked in the paint department and once dropped the red tint all over himself. He went home and tracked it all over our mom’s carpet in the middle of the night. She woke up to what looked like a crime scene of red shoeprints.

  12. Sally*

    #1 Napping Hideout describes a scene nearly exactly like in the movie “Employee of the Month.”

    1. Brain the Brian*

      I’m surprised it took the store in the AAM version so long to notice. Those radios aren’t exactly quiet! Maybe they usually turn them off but forgot on the day they were caught?

      1. Mother of Corgis*

        OP#1 here. I think that was the case this time. From the rumors around the store I heard, they normally turned the radios off or down to a very low level, and either just forgot this time, or figured they were far enough away from where the manager may go looking that they could get away with it. Could have just been general cockiness too. A few months later, someone stocking that section found they had signed their names on the shelving of their hideout.

    2. Anon for this*

      I missed this the first time, but I have a napping hideout story! Client, not a coworker, but still a great story.

      I used to work for a coworking space, the sort that had private offices to rent, as well as hotdesking. It was open 24 hours, though only staffed during the day, and it was a nice space with a lot of amenities, like plentiful snacks and showers for bike commuters. Our smallest private spaces were literally a closet, just wide enough for a narrow desk and a chair, with a sliding glass door (frosted, so you could see someone was there but they had some privacy).

      One of the stories passed down among the staff was about a fellow who rented one of these little closets, but then kept bringing in stuff — pillows, a beanbag chair, eventually a small couch. The space was so small that the only way a couch would fit in was turned sideways on one end (leaving MAYBE enough space to stand, certainly not enough to work comfortably), so the staff got suspicious and investigated. It turned out that the guy had discovered that there was some sort of maintenance hatch in his closet that opened into a decently-large dead space in the middle of the building, and he’d set up a nice little den in there, let his apartment lease lapse, and was living there. Obviously it was a huge fire code issue and they had to make him stop (and firmly batten down the maintenance hatch), but he could probably have gotten away with it basically indefinitely if he hadn’t tried to bring in actual furniture.

  13. The Starsong Princess*

    Back in my early days, I had to sit through a lot of conference calls in my cube that I, as the junior person, contributed little to. This one presenter droned on and on and I started nodding off. I woke up with a bang when my head hit my keyboard, leaving quite the bruise. I wasn’t on mute so everyone was asking “what was that?” Eventually, I just lied and said that I spilled my coffee.

    2. PhyllisB*

      I had a friend who used to have to do a conference call every morning at 7 am before starting her work day. (Paid time just before she went to work.) One morning she dosed off and Jersey awake when her manager said, “does anyone hear snoring?”

  14. Alan*

    I often come in after-hours to get caught up. Periodically I get tired, so I’ll take a nap. Unfortunately, one of my office “walls” is a long window facing outside along my office. On the other side of the window is the driveway to our ATM. So, to ensure nobody could see me, I’d nap under the desk, George Costanza style!

    1. MigraineMonth*

      I’ve napped under my desk before. (In my defense, I was young and it was one of those hip, unconventional companies that did a terrible job of teaching office norms.)

  16. juliebulie*

    I fell asleep once during a teleconference. This was in the 90s, I was at home (sick), listening in on an ordinary phone without mute. It was basically just a regular phone call for me, and they had me on speaker. These meetings were more for my information than my input, and being sick and all, I fell asleep and apparently snored and now I do not do phone calls in bed at all ever.

  17. Dewey*

    We had a virtual reference desk which was just a big screen with a Teams meeting that we would join for shifts throughout the day. I took over from a coworker for a shift and he was routinely fully asleep, chin on chest, and snoring softly. Not wanting to yell his name too much for everyone to hear over the speakers, I learned how to just kick him out of the meeting and let him finish his nap. He was less than two months away from retiring after almost thirty years when I started, so I don’t blame him in the least.

  18. Mostly Managing*

    I nearly fell asleep at work a couple of weeks ago. I’d promised to pick my son up from the airport, which should have had us back to my house about 10pm. His flight was 4 hours late. The next day I was not exactly functioning, and seriously considered a nap at work.

    In the end I decided I’d be more comfortable at home, so since it was a slow day (as in, nobody else in on my floor!) I just left. Napped. Did a couple of hours from home the next day so my hours for the week were still done.

    (My manager thought it was hilarious, and more or less told me that if it ever happened again I should just take the afternoon and only make up the time if there were urgent things on my plate. I love my department!)

  19. Momma Bear*

    I had a housemate who said that he would put the phone ringer on high and curl up under his desk with the door closed, so he would always be available for a call but get a nap. This was before Teams and keyloggers.

  20. Jiminy Cricket*

    I hope Chad got comp time instead of being mocked. He was working late and exhausted.

    1. ferrina*

      Sounds like he got some gentle ribbing, not mocked out of the building. It is pretty funny, but points to Chad for getting the work in after waking up!

    2. Just Me*

      Chad was fine. Everyone thought it was funny, including him. He got teased and the partner bought him an alarm clock for his desk as a joke. (Which was frequently set to go off and hidden in various people’s offices… including the office of the partner who bought it.)

      We’re accountants and exempt, so he didn’t lose any pay over it. And we do get extra PTO to help make up for the overtime hours we work in tax season.

  21. Code Monkey, the SQL*

    I’ve told the full story before, but back in 2018 (aka pre-Zoom for our company), my coworker was a contractor on an Everyone But the Dog conference call meeting with a client’s C-Suite. He dragged us all upstairs to listen to some poor schmoe snoring outrageously into the phone while someone else tried to puzzle out the global mute.

    1. Art3mis*

      I was a trainer for awhile and did training via Teams. We had a new hire that didn’t take a nap on camera, but he wouldn’t turn his camera on and would just flat out disappear. It wasn’t my call, but he got fired.

    1. Slow Gin Lizz*

      I work from home. I read these, then went to take a nap. I just woke up from said nap. I’ve only worked a few years in an office but boy were those years *hard* when I couldn’t sleep during the day. (Truth be told, the last year I worked there I would go out for a walk when the weather was nice and nap on a park bench for a bit. Eventually I got my insomnia treated and now I rarely need a daytime nap anymore, thank goodness, but today was an exception after a busy weekend.)

  24. Name (Required)*

    Years and years ago, I proofread for a financial publishing firm. The first 10 days of the month were pretty quiet while clients tabulated all their monthly data and whipped up portfolio manager reports, so I’d have a solid week and a half every month where there’d be no more than 30 minutes of work a day if I dragged out a one-page edit for as long as I could. Those days were when I’d take a loooooong lunch that entailed parking in a shady and secluded spot, fluffing up my backseat napping nest (complete with pillows and seasonally appropriate blankets!) and taking a glorious siesta. I hated that job so much but the naps it allowed for were absolutely delicious and among the few things I miss.

    1. Elizabeth West*

      We had a coworker at OldExJob who would nap on his lunch hour. He went out to his car and fell asleep and then came back an hour later on the dot. Every day.
      I don’t know how he conditioned himself to fall asleep like that — if I tried it, I’d be too afraid I wouldn’t hear my phone alarm and they’d have to come out and find me. That never happened to him.

  25. Anon4This*

    While in high school, my brother worked at a fast food restaurant that has an indoor playplace. In those days, the restaurant closed around 10 or 11pm but the playplace closed a couple hours earlier. There was one employee who would always volunteer to clean the playplace as part of his duties. This employee, “Todd,” would set out to clean up things and two hours later nothing would be done.

    The manager finally figured out what was going on when he was closing up the restaurant one night and noticed Todd hadn’t clocked out. The manager searched high and low for Todd and found him fast asleep on the platform at the top of the big slide; he’d been asleep for nearly three hours (and hadn’t cleaned a thing). IIRC, Todd put in his two weeks’ notice shortly thereafter.

  26. SheLooksFamiliar*

    I have never fallen asleep at work, even when I was so exhausted I was cross-eyed. But a fluffy orange menace of a shop cat to purr into my ears? Bet that would’ve done the trick.

    1. Boof*

      yea my babies are what mostly cured my insomnia; a cat would probably also do the trick if cuddly enough (similar size/weight). So far my cats would probably just bap my face and fight on top of me than defend my slumber tho so YCMV (your cat may vary) as far as insomnia treatments go :( They’ve been barred from the room for a long time because more likely to disrupt sleep than halp

    2. Loredena*

      Before I discovered the joys of the cpap we had a new puppy He’d curl up with me on the bed giving off sleep rays and I’d get a much needed nap!

  27. Timothy*

    One of the awesome things about WFH is the ability to set yourself as unavailable/DND on Slack, and have a 30 minute power nap. Usually happens to me right after lunch, but sometimes at about 3pm (like today).

    Nap over, I’m fully charged and ready to get back to work! I salute my fellow nappers. :)

    1. Tinkerbell*

      My wife has a lot of zoom meetings that are legally mandated repeats every year (things like “don’t lose your top secret laptop” and “you have to tell us if you’re in over your head with gambling debts” and the like) and she LOVES doing these from home because she can turn her camera off, let the presenter drone away on her laptop, and she can play Animal Crossing :-) (More practically, she can write code while listening in on semi-informational meetings too when she has nothing to contribute – time she’d otherwise be stuck in a meeting room not getting her own work done!)

  28. Sevenrider*

    I worked in an office part of a manufacturing company that had a huge warehouse and shop that was located in a bad part of town. We had a guard dog company that came in after the 2nd shift went home to release guard dogs. One guy had climbed up on a shelf to nap and slept too long. He woke up and climbed down from the shelf only to find two Rottweilers growling at him. He had to climb back up and stay there all night. When the woman showed up the next day to collect her dogs, she found them sitting in front of his shelf. Apparently, they had spent the night trying to jump up on the shelf to get at him. She said after she leashed the dogs, he climbed down and ran out of there. We never saw or heard from him again.

    1. Hroethvitnir*

      That’s incredible. Reminds me of when I was at a muay thai club in the suburbs in Bangkok. There were heaps of feral dogs, and they were generally chill – but when one guy in our group split from the group and came back 2-3 am they wouldn’t let him come down our street, the biggest one was blocking it and growling. He ended up sleeping on the street. (He was fine.)

  29. the Viking Diva*

    At the dentist today, the hygienist asked me if I wanted to wear my sunglasses during the cleaning (since I’d have to wear glasses of some sort, for safety). “That way you can sleep,” she laughed. “It doesn’t happen often, but it has happened!” I am still trying to figure out who can doze off with their jaws held open, head at an unnatural angle, with someone industriously deploying various scrapey-pokey-noisy implements on their teeth….

    1. Slow Gin Lizz*

      Before I got my insomnia treated, I was tired all the time and I once joked at the dentist’s office that I’d probably fall asleep, hahaha (because, like you, I figured that would be impossible). They told me they did once have a guy fall asleep during a procedure – turned out he had a new infant at home and of course was totally sleep deprived. (And in case you’re wondering, I did not fall asleep in the dentist’s chair.)

      1. snooze anywhere*

        Yes – I did fall asleep once at the dentist when I had a colicky infant at home. It was the most relaxation and quiet I had experienced in weeks.

    3. Daria grace*

      One of my friends claims to have fallen asleep while getting tattoos which is literally someone poking needles into your skin

      1. Petty Betty*

        I’ve dozed off while getting inked up. It really does depend on your position and the location of the new tattoo being worked on.

      2. Fluffy Orange Menace*

        My daughter has done this multiple times. I was with her once. The tattoo took about 6 hours and she just zonked out after the first hour or so.

    4. learnedthehardway*

      I fall asleep in the MRI machines when I’m having my scans. Despite ear plugs and a set of hearing protectors, those things are LOUD.

      When I was in the Reserves (part time military in Canada), I was able to nap during artillery fire going on beside me, so I really can sleep through anything.

      1. Polly Gone*

        Ha, came here to post that. I fell asleep in the MRI once, it was almost like being hypnotized with all the banging.

        1. Elizabeth West*

          I nearly did during mine too — my leg was in it, not my head. I didn’t think that could happen, but it was strangely relaxing.

    5. Shutterdoula*

      People who have to take Klonopin or similar in order to go to the dentist. I have someone in my life like this and she needs someone to drive her and sit with her.

    6. Theon, Theon, it rhymes with neon*

      I had a workaholic boss who slept ~4 hours a night regularly, worked most of the rest while highly caffeinated, and said he found it super easy to sleep while getting his teeth cleaned. I, who have never involuntarily fallen asleep in my life, need a great deal of conscious effort to make it happen at all, and then awaken at the slightest sound or movement, marveled about him for those very same reasons!

    7. Mystery*

      I used to go directly to dental appointments after 12+ hour night shifts. I fell asleep during those.

    8. Goldfeesh*

      I can doze off at a dentist appointment, especially back when I was in college and keeping terrible hours.

    9. Hroethvitnir*

      I have difficulty sleeping so don’t actually nod off, but I find getting medical care (including dentists) relaxing for whatever reason, so I have got sleepy enough to feel bleary afterwards.

    10. allathian*

      Here, they give you eye protectors to use. They’re disinfected between patients.

      The only time I’ve come close to falling asleep in the dentist’s chair was when they took the dental imprints for my braces.

    11. Zzzzzzzz*

      I have 100% done this, I’ve also fallen asleep waiting for doctors on their uncomfortable waiting table thingies. I’m severely HOH and I’ve wondered if that’s why, though.

    12. Dek*

      I mean, I don’t know that I’ve dozed off exactly, but I’ve definitely gone to a different plane of consciousness when the nitrous is on

    13. BubbleTea*

      I fell asleep during surgery, without anything that should have caused drowsiness (I think they used local anaesthetic? No idea, because I was fast asleep before they finished scrubbing up).

    14. Bay*

      I tend to sleep pretty well, so I don’t consider myself sleep deprived, but for some reason in these longish medicalish things where I’m turning the process over to someone else, not answering questions or otherwise having input– tattoos, massage, dentist, acupuncturist, sometimes even story telling when I really want to hear the story– I conk out! I hadn’t considered them as a genre before until this comment, when I thought ‘ah yep I could totally sleep at the dentist’

    15. Commenter 505*

      I had a cleaning about 5 weeks after my first child was born. I legit felt like I was on vacation or at the spa. They could’ve performed surgery and I wouldn’t have woken up.

      PS, The sunglasses are for light sensitivity when faced with the glaring dental lamp and whatever overhead monstrosity is used in the exam room.

  30. Burned Out Banker*

    I had a former coworker who was a bit of a loose cannon – hard worker but somewhat unpredictable. One Saturday he came into the office (which is closed on Saturdays) to get some extra work done, but decided he would take a nap at his desk first. He napped for a couple of hours and when he woke up, decided he didn’t want to do any work after all, and went home.

  31. Diana Trout*

    I can totally relate to #10….which is why I don’t work from home. My cat is a terrible influence and doesn’t take no for an answer.

    It also doesn’t help that I spoil her relentlessly and am rather unapologetic about it.

    1. A perfectly normal-size space bird*

      My home office has a lovely view of the trees and sky and I made the mistake of putting a cat perch on the windowsill. So now my view is a cat sleeping in the sun which is like getting hit by a tranq dart.

      1. LadyAmalthea*

        My cat snores, and working from home on a slow day when I’m a bit tired anyway, and can hear my cat snoring from the couch = minimal productivity.

    2. CommanderBanana*

      When I WFH I’m on the couch with my little dog on my lap (I would love to have an actual workspace but not a possibility at the moment with the space available in my house) and she curls up, dozes off, and then starts emitting the most amazing warm bready Frito smell the deeper she sleeps. It’s like tranquilizing mist.

  32. Esprit de l'escalier*

    I used to work at a state agency, and the only thing I remember from the Work Manual was that sleeping at your desk would get you fired immediately. When I think about all the truly bad things a person might do at work that apparently were not instantly-fired offenses, I am still kinda baffled about that policy and what might have led to it.

    1. CommanderBanana*

      I’ve honestly never understood this. Falling asleep while operating machinery? Yes, fine. Obviously sleeping at your desk isn’t a good thing to do, but I don’t see why it’s the WORST THING EVAR ZOMG.

      We are human and sometimes we do stuff like fall asleep.

    2. knitcrazybooknut*

      I worked in HR at a private company back around 2006 or so, and we fired someone for sleeping at their desk. They had every chance to file a medical accommodation request, but just never did it, and after all the warnings, etc., they were fired.

      In the unemployment hearing, the judge said that, since it was not mentioned anywhere in our employee handbook that you could not sleep at your desk, the ex-employee would be awarded unemployment benefits.

      Yes, that information was added to the employee handbook.

      1. NotSoRecentlyRetired*

        Back in the 1980s, the large government contracting company I worked for in Southern California announced that sleeping in your car in the company parking lot during lunch would get you fired. I didn’t see it implemented, but one day they had HR collecting names of people arriving late for work to report to their respective management. My near-retirement coworker saw this happening and just went back to his car and drove away to eat breakfast. He returned to work an hour later, after the HR folks had left and there were no repercussions. So, 10 minutes late to work got you reprimand, 70 minutes late was unnoticed.

        1. Not Another Username*

          It sounds like near-retirement co-worker had been around long enough to quickly clock terrible and inconsistent personnel practices.

    3. HailRobonia*

      HR: “George Costanza, it says that you slept with a cleaning woman at your desk.

      George: “Was that wrong? Should I have not done that? Having sex with the cleaning woman?”

      HR: “Oh, you had sex with her… nevermind. Just as long as you were awake for the full encounter.

      George: “uh, to tell the truth….”

  33. CommanderBanana*

    I had a former coworker who would nap at his desk and in meetings. His desk faced the door, reception-desk style, and people would walk into our office and stand there awkwardly while he snoozed away. He did this every day. He was a fed, so nothing ever happened to him.

  34. Lab Snep*

    #8 is NOT ME, but I realized I needed a workplace accommodation at one of my lab jobs when I fell asleep with my face planted on the microscope while reading a slide on an on call shift. And then on a day shift not long after I almost did the same.

    Doctor wrote me off call after that and I never fell asleep on a microscope again.

  35. Not The Earliest Bird*

    I was Chad recently, but I wasn’t asleep. I just had my door shut. Then everyone left not checking on me before they left. When I did leave, I set off the alarm.

  36. doctorly*

    When I was in medical school, we occasionally worked with surgeons who did minimally invasive surgery via a robotic system. After the instruments were placed in the patient’s body, the surgeon would retreat to a workstation (essentially a giant video game controller) where they would watch video from inside the patient and manipulate the instruments. A resident would be left standing next to the patient and robot and moving the camera around to give the surgeon the right view. Medical students were usually assigned to a second robot control station, where you could watch the video while leaning forward with your forehead supported; the controls were disabled so you couldn’t mess anything up. It was a highly convenient place to nod off, because the OR was dark and you were far enough from the surgeon that they couldn’t ask you too many questions. Couple this with the fact that surgeons regularly wake at 3-4am to assess their hospitalized patients before the day’s surgeries start at 7 am, and I regularly took “robot naps” – that is, until I was “promoted” to replace the resident in standing next to the patient to direct the camera. This was more like a demotion, because the robot arms attached to the instruments in the patient’s belly would swing around wildly and ended up pummeling you in the boobs while you tried to hold the camera still.

    2. Hroethvitnir*

      Given how much those robots will have cost, it seems a bit horrendous for them to flail – even if it only hurts the resident. Ouch.

  37. RPOhno*

    Any worksite old enough will have a few napping legends, you just have to figure out who the lorekeepers are and ask. I remember hearing myth and rumor at a former workplace about a guy who worked the site long before I arrived. It was a pretty typical manufacturing space, so high ceilings, long corridors, but it handled hazmat so a lot of actual work took place in closed rooms and some specific building utilities were walled off. This absolute legend had created a napping nest for himself in the void space between an enclosed emergency shower/walled in storage room and the ceiling of the building. Seemed like it was an open secret that no one cared enough to do much about. I think he was eventually told that sleeping in a hot lab was a bad idea, but, again, way before my time…

  38. Chanel No. π*

    It wasn’t napping, but these stories are reminding me of the Harry Potter years, specifically 2003, 2005 and of course 2007, when people were bringing the new book everywhere with them. At work, it was unremarkable to see someone in the supply closet or a corner of the lobby, feverishly reading Deathly Hallows or whichever one. Anyone else do that, or have a co-worker who did that?

  39. HappyPenguin*

    #6 is kind of brilliant. I’ve certainly been sleepy at work, and “rested my eyes” for a minute or two at my desk. But I can’t imagine going to such lengths to plan a nap at work… I don’t know if I should be more shocked or impressed!

    1. CV*

      These could easily have happened independently; also having it show up on a TV show simply reflects the human condition.

  41. Crencestre*

    Several years ago, I worked at an agency which had some flexibility when it came to the work hours – if there was no more work for the day, the “floor staff” could go home early, although this had to be the manager’s decision.

    One day, one of the floor staff members decided to sleep at his desk (and no, he made no effort to conceal this.) The manager didn’t wake him up to tell him that he, like all the other floor staff, could leave two hours early. When Sleeping Beauty finally woke up (around 5:00, when he’d be scheduled to leave anyway), he was quite annoyed that the boss hadn’t woken up him so that he too could’ve left at 3:00! (No, he saw nothing out of the ordinary in literally sleeping on the job and then expecting to be given a favor. Surprise! He didn’t last too long at that agency…)

  42. Charley*

    I’ve for sure drifted off by accident at work before, but napping during the day gives me an awful sleep-hangover. Feeling jealous of all of these people who can do it without feeling sick and disoriented for the rest of the day.

    1. Six Feldspar*

      For me the two key things are how long the nap lasts and how long it is before your actual bedtime. My naps give me an energy refresh if I can get them right but even lying down with my eyes closed for the time helps!

      Nap time – about 30mins (based on the NASA nap research). Long enough for me to get to between fully awake and fully asleep (like a kind of floating sensation), not long enough to fully drop off.

      Nap timing – four or more hours before my bedtime, otherwise I can’t sleep normally.

    2. Hroethvitnir*

      Yeah, I know the theories around how to nap but it takes me so long to sleep no matter how tired that it’s impossible to time a short one – and big ones get me bad. Always been jealous.

      I can be actually concerning starting to fall asleep, but actually lie my head down? No sleep for you!

    3. Thinking*

      Nap plus hangover for me means I’ve done something my body objects to, which induced sleep but the hangover is me still working through the results. It’s usually something I’ve eaten. Nap without hangover just means I was tired. That’s just me.

  43. Madre del becchino*

    #6: Computer keyboard typing is one of my ASMR triggers — I may have to look up those YouTube videos!

  44. Ook*

    The joy of being sole librarian in a small company- if I’m not feeling well, or am sleep deprived, I can set my phone timer for twenty minutes in my lunch break and lie face down between the last two rows of bookshelves. Stealth nap!

    Face down is important part of the technique: I don’t snore that way, and if anyone has a sudden research request, I just need to get to my knees and be checking the bottom shelf next to me.

      1. Feeling Feline*

        Hello the very good orange fluff! You are the most trusted protector for all mappers. I love you.

  46. Cleo33*

    Over a decade ago my daughter’s first job in an office started at 5:30am! It was a part time job while she was in university. She worked on a team that did media monitoring, which involved monitoring social media sites as well as news outlets. This was for a key federal government department in a country that is not the US. The start time was so early, but once the social media package was put together and sent out to the distribution list, there was a lull at about 8:00am for about an hour before things ramped up again. One of the other students working there brought in a dog bed, for a very large dog. None of the supervisors or managers ever went up to the floor where the students working on media monitoring working at that ungodly hour. The students working at 5:30am would sometimes take a nap in the corner on this dog bed. Story has it, that it stayed there for 6 months. Until……one of the students posted on social media….a picture of herself napping in the dog bed at work. Someone from management saw the post, went upstairs and made them get rid of the dog bed. Did I mention they all worked in media monitoring that included social media?

  48. NotBatman*

    #1 reminds me of my first job in a restaurant and the overworked manager who used to nap on a wire rack used to store ingredients. Like, literally wire shelves with inch-wide gaps between the bars, and he’d lie on one (behind the giant tubs of strawberry compote) and sleep during the midafternoon lull. No pillow or anything.

  49. Granny Weatherwax*

    #2. I have a sign that says, “I ATE’NT DEAD” that I put on my chest before I lie down to avoid embarrassing misunderstandings of this nature.

      1. Raisin Walking to the Moon*

        I like to imagine that it feels like having a really vivid dream you remember perfectly.

      2. Arrietty*

        Borrowing isn’t restful at all, it’s exhilarating and physically demanding. All that curtain scaling with only a hairpin to help you.

  50. Matt*

    #1 reminds me of Scully and Hitchcock in Brooklyn 99. There was an episode about their “Secret Sleeping Office” or something like that.

  51. Fluffy Orange Menace*

    Around 2008 or so, I was working in a govt. program office, as a contractor. One of the govt. folks “John” would fall asleep at his desk sometimes, and everyone just … ignored it; frankly, he didn’t do much of anything anyway except perv on all the females. One day we were in a meeting though and he fell asleep at the conference table, so I thought I’d do him a solid and nudged him awake. Well after the meeting, I was called in by the Program Manager and read the riot act! John was a PATRIOT! John was shot during Vietnam and as a result sometimes he still gets tired and how dare I wake John up for something as trivial as work. It still boggles the mind.

  53. English Teacher*

    Naps can be so useful. If I have a usually sharp student who’s nodding off during class, especially early in the morning, I often let them sleep. The extra half hour is probably going to be more useful to them than one activity.

    (Obviously if this happens several times, I have a conversation with the family about stricter bed times )

  54. Helen*

    Big box store in my town apparently had a couple of 12/13 years that would go in the paper aisle and create paper towel “forts” and hide/play/sleep while their parents shopped. I picked up a pack of paper towels once and screamed because there were 2 people laying on a pallet sleeping but I thought they were dead bodies. I found out soon after that it was a regular thing because my screams drew other shoppers and an employee. The employee said “oh yeah, they do that all the time”.

  55. Ann Stephens*

    I was in my first trimester of pregnancy (20 years ago) and exhausted ALL THE TIME. I went to a client’s home to do their books (they were at their office) and sat down on the couch to go through the bank statements, etc. Their kitten climbed onto my lap and made itself comfortable. I laid my head back *for just a second* and woke up two hours later. Best nap of my life. Thank goodness the client never knew it.

    1. Chirpy*

      (Minus the cat and pregnancy), that was what happened the only time I’ve fallen asleep at work. I sat down on a comfy couch *for just a second*….luckily it was also a job that trusted me to get stuff done and would have just waved it off if I’d told them.

  56. La Triviata*

    Obviously, cats are top-notch sleep aids.

    More seriously, for several years I worked for a man who had undiagnosed sleep apnea. People knew he fell asleep at the office; once in the middle of a phone call, still clutching his phone. Once diagnosed and treated, he was OK.

  57. Nilsson Schmilsson*

    I’m jealous of all these people that can actually fall asleep during the day. No matter how hard I try, I can never nap more than 15 minutes.

  58. LCH*

    i’m sort of worried about some of the more uncomfortable nappers. to be that sleepy and able to nap in such conditions.

  59. BestBet*

    I worked third shift for a call center once, and we had a new hire come in for their first day WITH A PILLOW. When it was pointed out to her that she was actually expected to, ya know, be awake her entire shift, she became incredulous. Why would they want her to come in so late if she wasn’t allowed to sleep?! She did not last long.

  60. Avoid the cameras*

    I worked at a group home for teenagers many years ago and they were 12 hour shifts each time. I always worked day shift, so the kids were all gone at school for a good chunk of my shift. We always had some cleaning and paperwork to complete first, but that was normally done in a couple hours. The nice part was we were allowed to study or read while on shift as long as our duties were completed and the kids were not in the building, but of course reading makes you tired! There were cameras in the building but we all new the blind spots, and I perfected how to sit in the corner of the couch with my book propped up to cover my face so I could snooze until the first kid got home or the phone rang. The job was really awful in a lot of ways but those little naps were nice.

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