Posted By Karl Anderson Hi - my company have recently tried the 'chill-out zone' concept and our staff really appreciates the ability to take a 'power-nap' in the middle of the day. This was introduced to us by our Swedish parent company and I must say that I was very reluctant at first. But so far it has proven to be a positive change for us. The Swedes claim that by relaxing 10-15 min a day in these chill-out zones (it has a massage chair!!!) will renergize us and reduce our stress levels and ultimately also reduce abseentism. I don't know, those Swedes have some crazy ideas and I wasn't to keen on this at first. Anyone else in this forum experiences these 'chill-out' zones?

Posted By Ken Lucas Karl Similar to Nick, my previous company had chill out zones called tea bars which the blokes used to visit on a "half hour on - half hour off" basis. Unfortunatley unlike the staff the production manager felt this wasn't such a good idea and therefore in his very innovative way, introduced three "pussy" cats to the working environment. Workers being encouraged to stroke Sylvestor & Co as a means of reducing stress. Again unfortunately they had to go due to high stress levels, i.e. the cats liked sitting on the tops of PC's so we had a couple of minor fires, and some mildly burnt cats, alongwith "it's your turn to feed them" and "I'm not clearing that mess up again" problems. The final straw however was three claims due to cat allergy - compo claim culture again. Regards Ken

Posted By George Wedgwood Just get them to sign a Working Time Regs disclaimer and allow them to work unlimited overtime - they love it! Seriously, good managers could benefit from this but the average ones would see their output drop as they would only have 60% of their workforce available due to the rest chilling! In a ring-fenced and well controlled environment, where the culture is healthy, I would think it is an excellent idea - but that position need a lot of work to reach first.