Why the lunch break is going extinct

[Marilyn. 340]

By Eve Tahmincioglu

MSNBC contributor

Updated: 5:43 a.m. PT Aug 20, 2007

My relatives in Athens, Greece have always indulged when it came to their lunch breaks. They’d leave work and head home around 1 p.m. and sit down with family at a big table loaded with food, everything from grilled octopus with greens to roasted lemon chicken and potatoes. There was also always wine and Ouzo, an anise-flavored liquor, flowing.

As you can imagine, everyone got pretty tired partaking in this feast so they’d all go off to bed for at least an hour nap. Around 3:30 or 4 p.m. they’d go back to the office or factory and toil until about 7 or 8 p.m.

I always mocked my relatives when we would visit them in Greece during my teen years. Their endless lunch breaks seemed to me to be the height of laziness. Ah, the ignorance of youth. I would give my right arm if I could get that kind of lunch today. Who wouldn’t?

Not only is this not an option for most of the U.S. workforce, we’re lucky if we get a lunch break at all.

The workers at VendorSeek.com don’t get any lunch breaks Monday through Thursday.

“It is encouraged that we eat at our desks and use this ‘down time’ to address e-mails, inter-office meetings, and other tasks and necessities that would interrupt the flow of the normal course of the work day,” says Ken Wisnefski, president of the company that helps businesses find outsourcing services. He points out that the company is a bit more lax on Fridays and workers can take up to an hour to do what they wish.

What Wisnefski found was his workers were spending so much time scheduling lunches and then ramping back up again after lunches that they ended up playing catch up for most of the day.

“Now things are more organized, less chaotic,” he explains.

Lunch hours, forget them. Those were long gone years ago. A study by chicken fast food chain KFC Corp., found that 60 percent of workers in Corporate America actually considered the lunch hour “the biggest myth of office life.”

But now a growing number of employees are finding they are also losing their right to a lunch half hour, or any break at all. About 55 percent of workers take a half hour or less for their lunch breaks, according to a survey by Steelcase, an office equipment maker.

Women, who are forever trying to prove themselves in the work world, are not surprisingly more likely to take shorter lunch breaks than men; and all you uptight Northeasterners are also taking shorter lunches than your counterparts in the rest of the nation.

Many workplace experts suspect even those workers who are allotted a half hour for lunch, often end up never leaving their desks.

The move to shorter or non-existent lunches is in some cases self-imposed. “It’s almost as though workers started the trend,” says Deborah Brown-Volkman, a career coach.

We’re all too busy these days to take a leisurely lunch and we also want to get out of work at a reasonable hour so we can have some quality time with our families and friends. If you work through lunch, the thought goes, you can get out of the office before the witching hour.

In the case of VendorSeek, employees actually hatched the idea to do a way with lunches, maintains Wisnefski. “They asked, ‘why do we need to take lunch?’”

Well, it turns out giving up your lunch break could actually diminish your productivity, causing you to end up putting in more hours in the long run, not to mention what it does for your health and well being. “I joke sometimes that smokers are the healthiest people in the work place these days because they get outside,” says Brown-Volkman.

“Your brain needs to rest,” she adds. “Sometimes, in order to concentrate you have to think about something different, get a way from the problem. Sunshine is good for the body, mind and soul.”

And Joe Takash is a business consultant claims lunch breaks can “help boost creativity and profits.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20265063/page/2/

[almaty 19]

sad,,,need a break to recharge

[Queen Jenn 0]

I'm guilty of working through my 1/2 hour lunch, but then I leave 1/2 hour earlier.

[almaty 19]

I'm guilty of working through my 1/2 hour lunch, but then I leave 1/2 hour earlier.

you are right thinking as usual sister

[Fandango 1,440]

Most times I work through lunch and grab summat out of the vending machine, but at least twice a week, I'm in a sit down restaurant with customers or colleagues....but then again I'm my own boss, so it's not like someone's dictating what I do or don't do....

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I find myself working through lunch most days. I always bring some fruits and vegetables with me that I can munch on during the day. That, my coffee and water and I'm fine. Sometimes I actually go out and head home to have lunch with Nani and the baby. I only do that once or twice a week, though.

[Cassandra+Yuibi 0]

I take my full our and enjoy it. An hour without having to deal with people going crazy, destroying my store, or my co-workers needing me to comfort them. (Yes, being the only woman and manager, I'm like the mother of my co-workers 90% of the time)

[KaiserD 12]

I take my full hour and enjoy it

I was just speaking to my brother back in the UK about this topic.

In retail it's difficult to get away to lunch, usually depending on someone who is starting their shift to stop moping and get on the shop floor but once you are away people don't mind if you come back late (if you started late).

But then health and safety means you can't eat on the shop floor unlike someone in an office that sits at their computer.

I was starting to think there were no good points to retail, it's nice that I was a bit wrong

Yes, being the only woman and manager, I'm like the mother of my co-workers 90% of the time)

That's great that they trust you! Too many power hungry managers who are depressed in their jobs and using their control over workers to make themselves feel better... out of 4 retail jobs over some years I've had 7 bad managers, 2 good ones and one that had potential.

[Jasman0717 9]

We are loosing everything else....medical benefits...retirement....why not breaks now

[almaty 19]

We are loosing everything else....medical benefits...retirement....why not breaks now

yes, brother jim.....it suxs to be middle class/working class

[Ban Hammer 13,656]

We are loosing everything else....medical benefits...retirement....why not breaks now

just be happy that management isn't composed of some of those women we've read about on vj, the nutrippers and groinlighters

[Jasman0717 9]

We are loosing everything else....medical benefits...retirement....why not breaks now

yes, brother jim.....it suxs to be middle class/working class

You got that right Brother Dean. I just saw the new rates for the retirees with the county I work for and their premimums will double next year. If Claudeth doesn't find a job with benefits I will be paying about $1200 a month for medical coverage

[almaty 19]

We are loosing everything else....medical benefits...retirement....why not breaks now

yes, brother jim.....it suxs to be middle class/working class

You got that right Brother Dean. I just saw the new rates for the retirees with the county I work for and their premimums will double next year. If Claudeth doesn't find a job with benefits I will be paying about $1200 a month for medical coverage

i agree..my folks pay close to $500 for a medicare supplement

[Sister Fracas 5]

The problem with sitting at your desk and eating (wellfor me anyway), is that even when a co-worker sees you with your gob full of your sammich, they still want to come over and talk work....argh. My fault I know, but still annoying...and how am I suppose to surf da net or play games on VJ?

[Jenn! 918]

I always take my lunch hour, whether I run errands or use the time to study at my desk. I don't feel any pressure to work during lunch or past quitting time, and that's the way I like it!