Ever been caught sleeping at work?

So um, last Friday during a meeting with a co-worker I fell asleep for a few minutes when my boss walked in. To make it even better, I was on one of my 15min breaks (I walk out of the building into my car and either take a nap or listen to music) and fell asleep while listening to music so I was gone for 30min. I get back to see my boss sitting in my chair, then she was like "being gone for longer than 15min is stealing from the company!!" She doesn't take explainations so my attempt to tell her of my mistake didn't work out.

Aside from making a wall of text, I'm just sitting at my desk having trouble doing my job while dreading the consequence of nodding off on Friday. I haven't fell asleep at work before and I normally never get in trouble so this sort of thing is nerve wrecking. If I recall, HR policies are to place me on a final counseling, but knowing my boss she'll probably push for termination which is why it's going to take all day for her (Ann) to go over it with me.

/sigh I just want to go home on my lunch break and drink so when I come back to work and they go over my final / term I don't flip out as much.

If the problem has a solution, why worry? It has a solution.
If the problem has no solution, why worry? It has no solution.


The only person who gets screwed because of your nervous breakdowns is you. Chill.

Snake-Aes wrote:If the problem has a solution, why worry? It has a solution.
If the problem has no solution, why worry? It has no solution.


The only person who gets screwed because of your nervous breakdowns is you. Chill.

And what if the solution is to get termed? That's all I keep thinking about.

What do you gain by feeling nervous about it?

Sounds like bad times.

Not much you can do but take it and not let it happen again.

And blackmail, that works too.

Panzerdin wrote:And blackmail, that works too.

I can tell you that has crossed my mind. There's so many fuck ups at this site our client would love to find out.

In one hour when I take my lunch break, I'm going home to take a couple of shots to loosen up.

Dracora wrote:

Panzerdin wrote:And blackmail, that works too.

I can tell you that has crossed my mind. There's so many fuck ups at this site our client would love to find out.

In one hour when I take my lunch break, I'm going home to take a couple of shots to loosen up.

Blackmail is probably not a good solution, it's petty and can blow up in your face and make the situation worse then just a simple mistake.

In all seriousness.

Vanifae wrote:Blackmail is probably not a good solution, it's petty and can blow up in your face and make the situation worse then just a simple mistake.

In all seriousness.

The petty part doesn't bother me. But the second part is a possibility. If I do see that they're about to term me I'll just quit. I've already thought about what to say when I tell them I quit so, yay, I just can't wait.

Dracora wrote: I get back to see my boss sitting in my chair, then she was like "being gone for longer than 15min is stealing from the company!!"

This is typical management BS. You know what you do if you run 15 minutes long on your break? You stay later in the day by 15 minutes. Stealing my ass. Eight(or however many) hours is eight hours, it shouldn't matter how 'long' it takes to put in.

It sounds like you have an office job as opposed to actually having to punch a clock--if they try to call you on it, just tell them you still put in your time for the day and haven't ever been 15 minutes late before.

Never caught sleeping at work because I can't get a job. Caught plenty of times sleeping at school though.

Rojhaz wrote:

Dracora wrote: I get back to see my boss sitting in my chair, then she was like "being gone for longer than 15min is stealing from the company!!"

This is typical management BS. You know what you do if you run 15 minutes long on your break? You stay later in the day by 15 minutes. Stealing my ass. Eight(or however many) hours is eight hours, it shouldn't matter how 'long' it takes to put in.

It sounds like you have an office job as opposed to actually having to punch a clock--if they try to call you on it, just tell them you still put in your time for the day and haven't ever been 15 minutes late before.

Yes, I have an office job. And I agree with the typical management BS part. Yet the arguement would be, "you stole from us and anything you say will not be considered." I personally forsee Ann saying something like this. She's one of those bosses that bust your balls if you don't follow all the company policies, she's a nice lady though.

Grehn|Skipjack wrote:Caught plenty of times sleeping at school though.

When I was in high school I used to sleep for the first 3 - 4 classes of the day and still somehow got through high school in 4 years.

Dracora wrote:When I was in high school I used to sleep for the first 3 - 4 classes of the day and still somehow got through high school in 4 years.

Yep. Public school system at it's finest.

last Friday during a meeting with a co-worker I fell asleep for a few minutes when my boss walked in

I was on one of my 15min breaks (I walk out of the building into my car and either take a nap or listen to music) and fell asleep while listening to music so I was gone for 30min.

I assume you have been "caught" on 2 separate instances where you fell asleep then? It seems like it but I just want to make sure I was clear.

There's so many fuck ups at this site our client would love to find out.

And then were you at your office or a client's location?

If this was a client location, I could see that as grounds for termination. Also being caught twice dosn't look good, seems like it could be a chronic issue (speaking from the bosses pov). Assuming this was at your office though I would have just said you had planed on staying an extra 30 minutes or something that night.

YoYoMa wrote:I assume you have been "caught" on 2 separate instances where you fell asleep then? It seems like it but I just want to make sure I was clear.

I have nodded for for brief periods of time (think 1-2min) before my co-worker would wake me up. But no, this would be the first ever that I was caught (edit).

And then were you at your office or a client's location?

We have a representative from the client who works at my location. He's such a sneaky little rat. If he finds too many things that are out of place he'll recommend that the client pull the contract from the site.

If this was a client location, I could see that as grounds for termination. Also being caught twice dosn't look good, seems like it could be a chronic issue (speaking from the bosses pov). Assuming this was at your office though I would have just said you had planed on staying an extra 30 minutes or something that night.

It wasn't even 30 minutes, it was no more than 2 minutes. If I do have the urge to sleep I either 1) get coffee to wake me up or 2) go to my car on breaks /lunch.

On another note, I like how the poll is turning out.

2nd edit: It's all good now. I went home on lunch and drank five shots of vodka (I try not to drink shots so usually 4-5 does me pretty well).

I'm no manager, but I can tell you exactly what questions go through a boss' head when they catch you sleeping:

1. How many other times has he been sleeping on the job that I HAVEN'T caught?
2. Do I really expect this person to perform good work if they aren't even awake to do it?
3. Can I really trust some guy sleeping on my dime to "make it up" at the end of the day?

The problem is that is an iceberg scenario for the manager. It is possible they caught you "the only time" it has happened, but it is much more likely that it is simply a glimpse of larger issues.

I find I am less critical of "management BS" if I put myself in their shoes. Not saying a lot of it still isn't nonsense, but it helps give some perspective on WHY they are upset.

May I just say that I wasn't serious in recommending blackmail.

Kitsuna wrote:I'm no manager, but I can tell you exactly what questions go through a boss' head when they catch you sleeping:

1. How many other times has he been sleeping on the job that I HAVEN'T caught?
2. Do I really expect this person to perform good work if they aren't even awake to do it?
3. Can I really trust some guy sleeping on my dime to "make it up" at the end of the day?

I can honstly answer all the questions, but I wouldn't do so with my boos.

1) 10+ (again these are 1-2 minutes and I wake myself up or my co-worker does)
2) Whether I sleep or not, I have not failed nor has my workload suffered due to the above actions.
3) I always make up time. For the last 9 months I've had flawless attendance. I haven't even taken a vacation day for close to a year.

Panzerdin wrote:May I just say that I wasn't serious in recommending blackmail.

No taker-backers.

5 shots of vodka?

If I was a manager I would find that to be alarming, but I assume that is the norm for you.

I also assume they don't know about that.

5 shots of vodka at lunch time? Please tell me that you don't work afternoons.

Dracora wrote:It wasn't even 30 minutes, it was no more than 2 minutes. If I do have the urge to sleep I either 1) get coffee to wake me up or 2) go to my car on breaks /lunch.

I know but I would have immediately said to my boss "oh I just needed a few extra minutes today so I figured I'd stay an extra 30 tonight. I would think that would go a long way towards alleviating concerns on your bosses side. But things always get touchy when you involve clients. As I learned a looooong time ago, perception is everything. It doesn't matter if you work 12 extra hours of OT every day for a year if nobody sees it Likewise, it may have been the 1 time EVER that you closed your eyes at your desk and it may have been for 20 seconds, but if the client perceives that as not being able to perform the work they contracted you to do, it could kill a deal. So intent means nothing, perception is everything. Hope it all turns out well for you though.

ha, yeah 5 shots of vodka would definitely be grounds for dismissal.

Vanifae wrote:5 shots of vodka?

If I was a manager I would find that to be alarming, but I assume that is the norm for you.

I also assume they don't know about that.

I'm not a loud drunk. I'm a quiet, relaxed ex-pro reefer smoker, who when drinks, is very very relaxed. I don't walk funny, my words do not slur, and I still have some small amount of critical thinking left.

No one will know about it unless you have me take a breathalizer (sp?) test.

YoYoMa wrote:ha, yeah 5 shots of vodka would definitely be grounds for dismissal

No joke there. I'd even fire myself I found out.

YoYoMa wrote:Hope it all turns out well for you though.

Apparently for me there's no expections. I know the agents (I work in a call center) that work here slide around so many things. No food on the floor? Ha, don't joke me. There's so much food you could have a banquet daily for all 300+ agents. No cell phones? I see them out so much. It's supposed to be an instant termination per client request, but they only issue final counselings. You can only have up to 8 occurance (times that you've missed work in a designated amount of time) and people have over 20. If the client found out, they'd fire the agent and penalize my company a lot of money.

Again, anyone can audit all of my work. No matter what happens I always get 'er done (as larry the cable guy says).

I suppose it's also possible that that douchebag you mentioned earlier (rat?) may have been the one to notice and went to your boss about it. That would be one reason a boss would get more upset than usual.

EDIT: Also, your poll lets people select both options. :)

So you're already in a heap of trouble for extending your break by 15 minutes. The next logical step is, of course, to go have shots of vodka.

Do you want to get fired?

You should be able to rationally explain/apologize about the 15 minutes. No boss in the world is going to listen to an apology about going home to take 5 shots of vodka then coming back to work. Which begs the other question, did you have to drive home and back? Cuz she'll be so proud of her employee that not only extends their breaktime but also drives around drunk during the work day.