Is your 30 minute lunch break enough

It has been a long standing tradition for those of us in the world of office working to issue our employees with a 30 minute unpaid break, to eat their lunch and have a bit of a respite from the office. 

These days are now behind us and its is now a thing of the past for many of us, to either pre-make your office meal and don a snazzy looking lunch box into the office, or be enticed by the office canteen where you were greeted by an array of healthy looking premade meals and sandwiches, allowing us some additional time to sit, exercise, read or have a catch up with a colleague.

In this new world of home working, we have less time commuting, longer times spent sitting at our office desks and less chance of social interactions with our work colleagues. So, I am asking the question of whether 30 minutes a day to make your lunch, eat it and have enough time away from our fairly intense zoom meetings is now enough?

Lets take an average office workers 7.5 hrs. a day with a 30 minute lunch break, giving a total of 3.5hrs either side of the day (minimum) sitting at their PCs.   According to research conducted by Liberty Games, 41% of British people admit to being more likely to work through their lunch breaks now they’re working from home. And 38% of people working longer hours, with the absence of a real boundary prompts us to work longer, harder hours. In fact the Harvard business review has gone even further to suggest that Research shows, thanks to remote work, we’re spending an average of 48.5 minutes more at work each day, attending more meetings, and navigating more emails.

This is not a discussion around whether we should or shouldn’t be taking a lunch break. It is proven that we of course should and I’ll get to that later. Neither is this a case to suggest that we should all be running back into the office full time. But, with many of us working from more rural locations, a quick trip to the nearest café or supermarket is not on the table (no pun intended). So, is there a need for an extension to our mid day break?

So, how many of us will often opt to walk from our desk to the kitchen and grab something quick to eat at our desk and just continue to work through? This not only creates poor eating habits and a bad diet but, this is also having a massive impact upon our mental health and most of us can agree that we are not promoting any sort of mindful eating here either.

Should we consider moving to a 9-5:30 to allow a longer lunch?

Does the old age 30 minutes a day, just not allow enough time for our new work habits. Would we rather a slightly longer day, for example 9-5:30 and take an hour to allow us to create something decent and also go for a walk, therefore completely recharging? an idea many may consider now that they are not commuting the 1.5hrs into and out of the office?

I know there are businesses out there who already take that approach and I think that we are seeing this 9-5:30 day increase across some industries. Should more follow suit now that we are more isolated in our homes and away from the usual quick breaks via a good old natter with a colleague?

According to research, North American workers who take a lunch break every day score higher on a wide range of engagement metrics, including job satisfaction, efficiency, and likelihood to recommend to others.  However, if people working from home don’t feel they have enough time to eat and relax then will they bother taking one at all?

No matter whether we take a 30, 45 or 60 minute break, we really must all get better at taking them so I’ve added a few tips that you may find useful to ensure you are taking a well deserved reprieve:

1. Make lunch a priority – sometimes the simplest solutions are the best, I once worked with a fantastic COO who had her lunch break in her diary every day and beware the person who even attempted to request that she move this to suit a business meeting. Putting your lunch break in your diary creates awareness and also sets a positive message, allowing others the freedom or doing the same.
2. Agree break times with your colleagues this way you can motivate each other and keep each of you to your allotted times.
3. Do something fun – having something to look forward to will motivate you to stick to your plans, getting out to walk the dog in the sunshine, recreating your favourite dish, reading that article about the latest fashion must haves!
4. Arrange social lunch events – these ensure that the time is taken, we can reengage with our colleagues and assuming that business leaders should also be present, it takes away any stigma around taking the time away to reenergise.

Make a commitment to yourself!

Last year showed us how resilient we are and how well as a population we can evolve when faced with major change, but it also showed us the importance feeling connected to one another, with a fair majority desperate to spend some face to face time with our colleagues. Whether we choose to spend it eating alone, going for a walk, or dining with colleagues, I, for one, hope that we can continue to evolve through the new ways of working and take the much-needed time we deserve in the form of a decent lunch break. I hope that we can move past the feeling of home working guilt and start raising awareness when we see that people aren’t taking the time they need to regroup. No matter how senior we are, we all need time to focus on our mental health.