‘Happy Hour’ is an HR Dive column from Reporter Ginger Christ. Follow along as she dives into some of the offbeat news in the HR space.
Nearly half of U.S. workers forgo lunch at least once a week, according to the results of a survey released recently by ezCater, a food tech platform. Workers say they’re worried they won’t have time to get all their work done or just have too many meetings.
Of the 5,000 workers surveyed, only 38% say they take a break away from their desk each day.
The survey jumped out to me because, in today’s era of remote and hybrid work, I wondered: What happened to the lunch break? Did it die?
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve worked remotely for the past four years, and I’ve only been in an office once during that time. So, admittedly, I’m a bit out of touch when it comes to the daily norms of office life, apart from what I glean from interviewing workers and talking to my friends and family.
My lunchtime routine at home is very similar to that of my in-office life. I make lunch most days and order out once in a while, as a treat or when I’m really swamped. In the office, I packed most days, and, when I still worked in downtown Cleveland, would go out for lunch periodically with colleagues or grab something to bring back. But generally, I’ve almost always eaten at my desk while writing. (Let’s be real, I’m basically eating at my desk all day, unless I’m interviewing someone. I am 100% a grazer.)
I reached out on social media to hear from the front lines: What is going on with lunch? Are we all glued to our desks?
A federal worker said via LinkedIn he slips in lunch when he gets a chance. Juggling 50 to 70 meetings a week, he grabs lunch when something gets rescheduled or during a training. Otherwise, it’s “not uncommon to not eat between 8-6,” he admitted.
An HR consultant has eaten for years at what he refers to as the “Keyboard Cafe.” While still in the office, he rarely wanted to sacrifice time during the day for a lunch out that could keep him away from seeing his wife and kids for dinner at night, so he packed lunch and ate while working, a habit that continued when he started his own consulting firm and spent most lunchtimes at home.
Now, his kids are out of the house and he and his wife work remotely, so there’s less of a rush, and he’s able to eat away from his desk.
“But before you celebrate my improvement, know this: I often eat lunch in the kitchen where I’m filling or emptying the dishwasher, pulling things together for dinner (gathering ingredients, spices, pans and utensils) and still being productive. I guess old habits die hard,” he said on LinkedIn.
A marketing and communications pro said he uses lunch as not so much a break but a break in meetings and a way to recover from all the morning’s coffee.
“In a world of Dashers wandering around buildings and parking lots searching for hungry souls, I dutifully make my ham and Swiss and pack a lunch for the days I am in the office (usually two to three times a week),” Bob Batchelor, VP of global marketing and communications at Workplace Options, said via email.
“Sitting at my desk, lunch gives me time to catch my breath and reassemble my thoughts after a morning of context switching. Lunch – early in my career and now – is a necessity, for the food and the moments of semi-quiet contemplation.”
Others say they haven’t had time to take an actual lunch break since college, and some just snack on whatever’s around, which happens to be leftover Halloween candy at the moment, according to a response on X. Some try to take advantage of the time when the team is in the office and take walking lunches or grab a meal together. Others even schedule a lunch break into their calendar just so they don’t forget.
But one brand manager said the COVID-19 pandemic changed her take on lunch breaks.
“Pre-pandemic, I almost always ate at my desk because taking time for a break felt unproductive; everyone ate at their desks,” she said via LinkedIn. “Fast forward to now, and 9/10 times I carve out at least 30-45 minutes to eat away from my computer. I’ve learned over the years that ‘multi-tasking’ means nothing gets done at 100% anyway!”
As someone who has to say out loud several times a day, “Focus, Ginger, focus,” I can maybe see where she’s coming from. Maybe if we all took back the lunch break, we could better focus during the day and not need to squander our lunch break to get our work done.
Until then, I’ll see you at the Keyboard Cafe.