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Sleeping at work! This was one response to reports that Heathrow CEO Thomas Waldy went to bed last Friday, leaving him to go to bed at 12:30am and decided to close the UK’s biggest airport. Some have said they have stomped away in the middle of the crisis just hours after the fire broke out at a nearby power substation. Transport Minister Heidi Alexander told LBC Radio:
Gaymeadows, founder of Sleep School and author of Sleepbook: How to Sleep Good Every Night was heated about such criticism. “I can’t believe we’re still talking about this in 2025,” he says. “I’m tired.” He thought the old mantra of “sleep cheating” was backwards as the organization had a better understanding of the relationship between sleep and performance, problem solving and decision-making.
The annoying thing about the crisis is that no one knows how long they will last. “They’re also a part of the management practices at the European School of Management and Technology, who is studying organizational mitigation of human error,” said Jan Hagen, professor of management practices at the European School of Management and Technology, who is studying organizational mitigation of human error.
In his view, one important aspect of the role of leaders in a crisis is to ensure proper periods of rest for themselves and their team. “Ideally, the organization has established a crisis team that is empowered to train various scenarios and make decisions.”
He suggests that companies responsible for critical infrastructure will need at least three teams to work in an eight-hour shift. “In the case of the Apollo 13, there were even four teams set up for the flight director function. Apart from many other teams for special functions.”
Buck stops with the CEO – they are paid very well to ultimately make big calls – Meltdown co-author Chris Clearfield: The reason our system has failed and what we can do about it is, “Leadership, in a way, is to get things done when you’re not in the room.”
The conclusion is that “fatigue has a degradation effect on human performance comparable to alcoholism.” This is related to many disasters, including the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the accident at the Exxon Valdez oil spill. If you know that the pilot is pushing through, will you take it on your flight? no. That’s why pilots need to schedule proper rest.
I feel a bit shaky when I see politicians get heated off the campaign trail, get up until election night, give speeches and appointments. One researcher wrote about the inadequate outcomes in the political summary of the marathon: “Decision making under the influence is bad for everyone. They are more likely to harm decision makers, halt negotiations and create policies that are irrationally risk-taking.”
Every year, Meadows holds an annual workshop with Big 4 Consultants on the role that sleep plays in improving leadership for partners who usually deal with late-night calls and fly across time zones. One of the topics of discussion is why they don’t take a break, which could be cultural or psychological, such as perfectionism. He needs “strength” to negate others’ judgment and get rest.
For a while during the pandemic, the culture of hustle and celebrating the time to punish it seemed to have disappeared. Meadows observes that he is even interested in chronotypes. People adapted to natural schedules and increased productivity when the owls and larks worked on personal patterns that night. “From an evolutionary perspective, that makes sense because slow sleepers can be wary at night,” Meadows says. But I’m worried that like the office – the old belief that the loser might return to sleep for the loser. Elon Musk and Donald Trump like to boast about their white collar shattering.
You will likely be able to get guidance from another high-tech oligarch, Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos once outlined the need for eight hours of sleep, allowing “putter time” at the first meeting at 10am. As he pointed out, “As a senior executive, you get paid to make a few high quality decisions. If you’re tired or unhappy, and the quality of those decisions may be low, is it really worth it (for the company)?”
