Ask HN: Should engineering jobs have a nap time?

Why not just work split shifts then? 8-12 and 4-8, if you want to nap in the middle that's your prerogative.

The issue is paying the employee to sleep.

This is a interesting question to me just for the fact it is asking what can we request from higher management. I was always told when being offer a new job everything was negotiable till you sign the papers. Maybe that is the time you are suppose to request a period in which to take naps? Would you ask to be able to take naps on site at your desk? Would they tell you, you can take naps as long as it is off site like the smokers? What would the company have to provide for you to be able to take a nap? How long would a nap be? I don't think a company should have to provide nap time, but I do think it isn't a crazy request as long as you take it serious. Also remember when you make a request from the company, you are also making a request for everyone else at the company to have the same privileges. You getting approve for nap time would make it possible for anyone else at the company to get approve for nap time.

So wouldn't the answer to this be not to give them paid naps, but to eliminate the reason they need the nap in the first place? Most people take on side work because they don't make enough at their day job. So maybe re-evaluate their compensation and maybe raise it a bit?

Agreeing with some of the other comments here; side jobs is not a good story here. If you have a fulltime contract at that company and your side jobs are making you sleepy then you should quite those side jobs. Besides that; a programmer/engineer can do maybe 4 hours of coding a day. I notice that when I have a siesta (I take a 1 hour nap after lunch) I am sharper and more focused and can do more hours. And it really makes me feel a lot better as well. Then again; I don't juggle contracts on the side anymore as that sucked the life out of me with or without naps.

> I've never heard of a programming job that consistently limits employees to 40-hour weeks.

Limits? Perhaps not, but I've been in this industry for 25 years and in all the hundreds of projects I've completed, I've never had a single project where I was told I had to provide more than 40 hours of work per week for 40 hours pay. There have been many that I have voluntarily contributed more than that because I felt it was warranted or I needed to, but that was on me, not my employer. If you are putting yourself in a position where you feel obligated to provide time over and above what you are being paid for, then you don't truly value your time - and that's one commodity that you can never get back. If your boss doesn't respect that your work life balance, then you need to own the fact that you haven't gained their respect for your time and fix it, not blame or paint stereotypes of "the software industry."

In all industries there are shitty employers, bosses, employees, customers, vendors (and any other relationship endpoint I've forgotten) but in my experience, those relationships all boil down to respect. If you don't have the respect you require in the relationship, you need to own that and either gain that respect or walk away.

You can work anywhere in the software industry and only work a 40 hour week if you haul ass in those 40 hours to deliver what is expected and get the respect you require to only need to work those 40 hours.

If you're not able to deliver what is expected inside of those 40 hours then you need to ask yourself the hard questions - are you doing everything you can to deliver? If you truly are doing everything you can, then you need to set better expectations with your employer.

If the work really can't be completed in those 40 hours, you need to stand up and give more realistic estimates so that your employer can make better resource management decisions. If they're not willing to consider your professional judgment and fund the resources to do the work in the amount of time you're willing to give, then you need to get your resume out, because there are plenty of places and jobs for talented software developers where employer expectations are realistic and there is respect for your time.