Some boards have an occasional sleeper and I have seen a few good sleepers in my time. One, a good contributor when awake, used to basically shut down after lunch and sleep at the table like a purring baby. His recurrent violent sleep-snorts used to keep the rest of us quite awake during the afternoons.

Another board director took the cake. He rarely contributed and also had a fatal attraction for after lunch sleeping. It was always my pleasure to see how he was dealing with the post-lunch torpor. Very soon the eyes would ram shut as phase 1. For phase 2 the upper body would ram upwards to assume a more erect sleeping posture. To show he was there. But obviously he had checked out from the work at hand. Occasionally he would reactivate. But not for long. This director was also known to shut down in the mornings and for embarrassingly long periods at stakeholder meetings where even a hiss, call or kick had no impact. At one meeting I saw him actually sleep throughout, and I will never forget it. Of course he accepted directors fees for all his work.

Career Day