Sleepy at work? You’re not alone

With the advent of Daylight Savings Time, you will lose an hour of sleep this coming weekend.

And if you’ve been feeling a bit sleepy already, you’re not alone.

The professional staffing service Accountemps this week announced the results of a survey that indicates 74 percent of U.S. employees say they work while tired, with 31 percent saying they do so very often.

The costs of working tired — both for professionals and the businesses for which they work — are high, Accountemps stated.

How high? Respondents cited consequences including lack of focus or being easily distracted (52 percent), procrastinating more (47 percent), being grumpy (38 percent) and making more mistakes (29 percent).

“It’s critical for managers to take action. There is no upside to having an exhausted team at work,” said Bill Driscoll, a district president for Accountemps. “Talk to your employees individually to come up with solutions.”

Some fixes he suggested included offering a more flexible schedule to alleviate long and costly commutes, bringing temporary staff on board to cut down on overtime and reorganizing current priorities to create more manageable workloads.

“Failing to take action can lead to big problems such as burnout, turnover and a negative corporate culture, along with lost sales and productivity.” Driscoll said.

Among other results:

▪ Younger workers might be burning the midnight oil, with 86 percent of professionals between the ages of 18 and 34 admitted to being sleepy at work often, compared to 71 percent of workers ages 35 to 54 and only 50 percent of respondents ages 55 and older. Slightly more men (77 percent) than women (71 percent) said they often work while tired.

▪ 55 percent of workers said they would use a nap room if their employer offered one, and 2 percent said their employer already provides a nap room and they take advantage of it; 33 percent of workers who said they would not take advantage of a nap room cited the following reasons: It might make them sleepier (46 percent), they don’t want to be perceived as a slacker (35 percent) and they worry about not getting their work done (34 percent).

This story was originally published March 11, 2016 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Sleepy at work? You’re not alone."