A new study by two professors from prestigious business schools has dropped a bombshell about managers, and what they are bragging about doing in their bedrooms. No, don’t get out your sexual harassment policy. They are sleeping with their Smartphones!
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The bombshell comes from results of the study, Why Sleep Is a Strategic Resource, and show that employers are communicating to employees’ off-hours via e-mail and social media and that this is just not conducive to workers getting quality sleep.
According to an article about the study, over half (56 percent) of managers and professionals check their Smartphone before going to bed, while a quarter (26 percent) report actually taking the phone to bed with them in case the boss sends some nocturnal notes.
A summary of the study from the MIT Sloan Management Review says authors Christopher M. Barnes, of the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, and Gretchen Spreitzer, of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, say top executives, such as Sir Richard Branson, Martha Stewart, and Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, who boast about only needing a few hours of sleep may be the cause of the phone-in-bed phenomenon.
When employees get messages from the boss late at night, they may feel pressure to emulate their leader and send an answer. They may even brag about how they respond to e-mails at any hour. However, the authors maintain that executives’ Smartphone habits “need to be managed so that employees don’t feel they are always ‘on call.’”
The authors also say that executives should not undervalue letting their employees get a good night of restorative sleep, even if they themselves don’t need much shuteye. According to the article, sleep deprivation plays out in many ways in the workplace, resulting in negative interpersonal relationships, unethical behaviors, lower levels of trust and cooperation [and, HRSBT is sure, more coffee runs].
Barnes and Spreitzer say that rather than ignoring employees’ need for sleep, executives should be fostering a sleep-supportive culture in their workplace and start by not sending e-mails late at night, but waiting until the morning.