Falling asleep on the job is pretty universally frowned upon.

But if you had a rough night’s sleep, it’s hard to keep your eyes from drifting off a little bit.

And sometimes no matter what you do: a red bull, a walk around the office, or a few jumping jacks, you still can’t keep yourself from dozing off!

But when this user was teaching at a military school, he was confused as to why his students were standing up, until he realized they were trying not to fall asleep!

Check it out!

Why are you standing?

A long time ago, when mainframes ruled the earth, I was asked to go give an all day presentation at a military school that had our hardware.

It was going to be about our latest networking hardware and software, and as someone that knew lots about it, I was selected.

Get set up in the large lecture hall. Pretty soon everyone files in a military fashion, gets seats and I get the nod from an officer that I’m good to go.

But the rules of the military school took them by surprise, to say the least!

Because Mom taught me to be nice, I started off with a “Goodmorning I’m Kilte….” and was drowned out by a loud “Good Morning Sir”.

Wow. Ok, so it’s going to be like that. So I get started again.

And I’m soon in full marketing / professor mode with gestures, arm pointing, pretty much full kabuki theater.

Soon they were experiencing behavior that was even strange for people in the service…

Cadet stands up. I stop, and go “Hi do you have a question?” “Sir, no sir”. Weird but ok.

Back to my interpretive dance routine describing a three letter networking environment with multiple physical and logical units. Soon another cadet stands up.

I stop, and go “Hi do you have a question?” “Sir, no sir”. Ok, stay calm, this will be fine, it’s going fine.

When the third person stood up, they thought they were losing their mind!

As I turn back to my slide with pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the side, another cadet stands up.

Three times a charm, maybe a question? “Do you have a question?” “Sir, no sir”.

“Ok, I have a question, why are you standing?” “To keep from falling asleep Sir.” Ahhh the penny drops.

Turn to my first standee, “Is that why you are standing?” “Sir, yes Sir!!” A quick look at the final standee, with my eyebrow in a full Spock arch, and they respond “Sir, Yes Sir!!!”

So they decided to give them a break, something that was probably completely unfamiliar to these well-disciplined army boys!

“Ok, let us take a 20 minute break then.”

The officer assigned to explained to me that falling asleep would earn punishment, but standing up and then falling asleep was fine.

I made sure we had extra breaks for the rest of the day.

I’m sure they never forgot their kindness, and I’m sure they didn’t soon get a break like that again.

For all the confused readers out there, this army man clarified that falling on your face was punishment enough.

But others said that dozing off while standing shows that you really cannot fight your body’s need for rest.

But for some users, they said this type of preventative action would have no effect on them.

Finally, this user said the only people more sleep deprived than army cadets were new parents!

You miss 100% of the naps you don’t take!

You can take that to the bank.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.