Grilled Cheese with a Side of Data: A Case to End Work Meetings During the Lunch Hour

Early in my career with Susan Stolov at Washington Independent Productions, I learned a key rule to successful team management: do not let people work hungry. (I can attest that the quality of video footage is directly related to a person’s hunger level.) And my team will quickly tell you, never let me work hungry as my hangry meter quickly leans toward 11 on a 10-point scale. Food is a priority to me, and therefor so is lunch.

But there is more to lunch than “grab and go.” The lunch break is just that “lunch” + “break.” Yes, we need food to keep our body and mind fueled for the tasks at hand. The “break” part of it, however, is equally important. We need time to rest our brain muscle. It needs to get off of the frantic email response hamster wheel or downshift from “big ideas” mode or recalibrate after difficult emotionally charged discussions. The “break” in lunch break helps me move from “mind-full” brain to “mindful” brain for the second half of my day. It’s also an emotional recharge for my introvert which can get crushed in a 5+ hour wall of back-to-back video calls with no time for processing.

Candidly, moving into consulting 15+ years ago, I picked up a very bad habit – eating at my desk. I know it’s bad. Data show it’s bad:

-       The “Take Back the Lunch Break” study found that employees who took a lunch break every day were more likely to say, “I am as effective and efficient as I would like to be” and “I am satisfied with my current job” than those who don’t. They were also more likely to say, “I feel valued as an employee” and “I have a strong desire to be an active member in my company.”

-       Nearly 90% of North American workers surveyed felt that lunch breaks helped them feel refreshed and ready to get back to work, which is not a small thing for employers hoping to retain a happy staff. 

-       Data collected using the time-tracking and productivity app DeskTime showed the most productive 10% of its users were those who took regular breaks that lasted about 17 minutes each. 

Before COVID hit, I modified my bad habit a bit by taking a 5-minute walk to pick up lunch in DC and then take it back to my desk to eat. At least I was stepping away, moving, and getting fresh air. When COVID shifted me to a work – uh, everything from home model – I thought, “This is my opportunity to get it right, and take a real lunch break.” I mean how hard could it be as I was 15 steps to my kitchen, right?

Fast forward a year, and I have good and bad news. The good news is that about two days a week my husband and I eat lunch together over a Friends episode. Nothing like a feel-good comedy of days gone by to lift your spirits in a pandemic. The bad news is that I see a growing trend in meetings set at noon, consuming the lunch hour.

These meeting requests began with a rare occurrence with an apology and quickly shifted to to the norm, and totally acceptable with no apology in sight. Noon is treated like 10am. There seems to be an expectation across various organizations I work with that the lunch hour is “free game” as we’re not going out to eat, have business lunches, or prevent folks from working later at the end of the day.

But I counter, that now more than ever, we need the opportunity to separate from work… especially when your office is also your bedroom. We need time and space to mentally breathe. To clear our heads. To transition from emotions of one type of work, say a high-visibility project, to another, such as budget management, employee feedback, or planning. We need time to recover from the whiplash of back-to-back Teams meetings.

What better way to do it than over a lunch break when we can feed our bodies, attitudes, and brains? And what better proof point to stop work-related lunch meetings is there than a warm gooey grilled cheese? See you after lunch!

Emily Oehler is a Director and Master Level II Certified Executive Coach who leads Grant Thornton’s public sector Business Change Enablement practice. She works at the intersection of planning, change, and communications to help leaders move organizations forward to obtain meaningful and measurable outcomes. (C) 571-289-7234; (E) [email protected]; (T) @EmilyOehler