What happens if you fall asleep on the job?
I can generally function well on little sleep, but sometimes I doze off at certain times (early afternoon, early evening) even when I'm well rested. I don't totally pass out or drop my head on the desk, I just fall into a very light sleep for ten minutes or so while I'm sitting at my desk and trying to work.
If I worked as an analyst and someone noticed me dozing off like this, would it be a no-go? Is this considered something that just happens, or is it totally unacceptable?
My group had a long-running email chain with sneaky pics of analysts in la-la-land. It was great to see the better part of a decade's crappy quality pics from what must've been somebody's Motorola Razr, looking up the names on the email and seeing people who left for Warburg, KKR, Bain, Apollo, etc. and went on to HBS.
Some were stellar. You had the classic headset on and dialed into a conference call pass-out while leaning back into the chair ... the classroom double-arm fold on the desk with a head tuck ... and some inventive ones where somebody literally had a blanket or something wrapped around them and hunkered down under a desk.
Circle of life.
I had an intern 2 summers ago who was a serial sleeper on the job. The first time I saw was when she fell asleep in a low-level client meeting, just dozed off while we were talking through some materials. I had no idea what to do because the occurrence was just so surreal to me, and the client definitely noticed.
Anyways, I said her name loud enough to wake her up and asked her to go back to the reception desk to "make a quick edit" to some meeting materials. She left. Meeting ended. Called my manager. Had her sent home. She never visited another client site for the rest of her internship.
We were pretty sure it was something clinical though because she seemed to make a habit of falling asleep. She was spotted snoozing by several others during that summer. Now she works in sales and makes more money than me.
I have had couches in my office for the past few years/offices and I've told people who work for me if they're tired AND I'm not in the office (very important and) to tell my assistant they're going to crash for 20-60 mins to recharge. Tired people don't work efficiently and make mistakes. I'd rather have them crash and get real sleep rather than nodding off at their desk all day, getting nothing done and making mistakes. If someone legitimately needs more sleep than that because they've been working all nighters (and not because they were out drinking the night before) I tell them to go home if it's practical. Take the morning/afternoon off. I know it's not the IB ethos but I like to think everyone's a professional adult and we don't work in a 40 hr/week world and it's normal to be exhausted if you worked until 3 am a few times in a row.
We acquired a company early in my career where the COO was an ex-Marine and just stereotype a hard charging old school Marine like Jack Nicholson out of A Few Good Men. I spent a lot of time at his office during the deal and one of the first things he showed me after the bathroom and kitchen was the location of the cot closets. I would never have expected it out of him but he said he absolutely encouraged people to take naps and compared it to being able to get sleep in a foxhole-take it when you can get it. Whenever I've had the authority to do so, we've always had cots in a closet.
For those of you who need some sleep and can't go home or nap in the office, I would recommend finding a good hotel (but not to get a room). When I was an intern, there was a hotel near the office where we found a couch on the second floor (banquet hall level) that was off in a weird hallway leading to a conference hall that never got used. When I was an analyst (different bank), someone showed me a similar group of leather armchairs hidden under an escalator at another hotel nearby. It was great for both naps and recruiting calls.
Somewhat related, if you ever can't find a public bathroom in a big city... use the bathroom in a hotel lobby.