The People Bulletin

As the cuts are made and staff members not replaced, has the pressure of business overloaded existing employees and put them under pressure to work through the lunch break? Armed with a couple of granola bars and a KitKat, The People Bulletin set out to discover today’s real meaning of lunchtime.

The workday lunch break used to be a time of socialising with colleagues, unwinding from business stress or simply getting out of the office for a breath of fresh air and sitting on the park bench to eat a sandwich or two. But that was then. The business environment is very different today with fewer staff undertaking greater amounts of work as budgets are slashed and output and efficiency increased.

According to a survey by Chiumento[1], only one in six workers takes a regular lunch break and one consequence of the credit crunch is that breaks are getting even shorter as job insecurity increases. This ratio translates into just 16% of employees taking a ‘proper’ lunch break and by that, it means about an hour’s break away from their desks at least three times a week.

Not lost, just shrunk

Andrew Hill, who helped conduct the survey felt employees were struggling to keep on top of to-do lists and think the answer is to work harder, eating a sandwich at their desk as opposed to taking a full lunch break and also not having sufficient breaks during the rest of the day.

In another survey undertaken last year by the UK’s largest convenience store group, SPAR[2], it was revealed that the traditional British lunch ‘hour’ had shrunk to just 35 minutes and 39 seconds. Some seven million workers skip their lunch breaks altogether and 70% don’t even leave their desks. Over half (56%) now take 30 minutes or less and one in ten take less than 10 minutes, This result given Britain over £22.66 bn[3] of free manpower each year.

Anyone hear snoring?

The finding also reveals that lawyers, bankers and even graduate trainees have longer lunch breaks than housewives. Should you hear the muffled sound of snoring in your workplace that’s because every lunch hour across the UK, 10% of builders, 12% of promotions executives and 10% of graduate trainees are fast asleep. Additionally, a 40 year-old will on average put in three more working days, due to shorter lunch breaks, than their 20-something colleagues.

Women are officially the lunchtime losers, taking the shortest breaks, feeling the most guilt about taking their lunch breaks and spending less on lunch than their male colleagues. Very surprisingly, charity workers splash out almost 20% more cash every day on lunch than bankers.

Who takes the longest lunch break?

1. Advertising/PR
2. Bankers
3. Solicitors
4. IT
5. Graduate trainees
6. Shop Assistants
7. Housewives
8. Teachers
9. Nurses
10. Farmers

Which city takes the longest lunch break?

1. London
2. Belfast
3. Oxford
4. Glasgow
5. Norwich
6. Birmingham
7. Southampton
8. York
9. Cardiff
10. Nottingham
11. Manchester

Which profession spends the most on lunch?

1. Electricians
2. Marketing
3. Builders
4. Charities
5. Lawyers
6. Graduate trainees
7. Bankers
8. Farmers
9. Nurses
10. Housewives

Less is often more

As pressure in the work place increases, the lunch break can now be seen as a luxury that many believe they cannot afford even although in various surveys, almost 85% of respondents acknowledged that they believed regular breaks were important for well being and productivity. With many people feeling pressurised into taking short breaks, Psychologist Dr Aric Signam, former advisor to the Institute of Personnel Management on health and psychology policies and issues, commented that workers must realise that when it comes to the quality of working hours, less, is often more – quantity is not quality.

‘Regular short breaks along with an hour away from your desk or work station at lunch time is ideal, especially considering that British employees work the longest hours in Europe, yet are getting less sleep and rest that they used to’, says Signam.

Lunchtime bonding

Of those surveyed for KitKat by MORI several years ago, almost one in three workers said they’d rather be alone during their break than mix with anyone, even their favourite celebrity. Amongst the selection of celebrities the research found the least favourite included Tony Blair, Ewen McGregor and Zoe Ball. At the top of the list were Sir Sean Connery with his reputation for mixing business with pleasure as 007 and in second place was Lenny Henry to bring some light relief into the workplace.

What are the rules?

A useful guide to the rest breaks workers are entitled to can be found on the Directgov website[4]. Under the Working Time Regulations, adult employees will normally have the right to a 20-minute rest break they are are expected to work more than six hours at a stretch. A lunch or coffee break can count as a rest break. Additional breaks might be given by the contract of employment. There is no statutory right to 'smoking breaks'. The requirements are:

• the break must be in one block;
• it cannot be taken off one end of the working day - it must be somewhere in the middle;
• employees are allowed to spend it away from the place on your employer's premises where you work; and
• employers can say when the break must be taken, as long as it meets these conditions.

[1] www.chiumento.co.uk

[2] Spar Survey on the Lost Lunch Hour. Survey undertaken by Onepoll in September 2009, polling a total of 4,832 residents.

[3] £22.66 billion figure based on statistics from the Office for National Statistics: 28.93 million people employed in the UK. 56% of the UK taking half hour or less for lunch equals 16,200.800 people. The average hourly wage is £11.66, half of which is £5.83 per person per day, Multiplied by 20 working days per month = £1,399.20 per person per year, multiplied by 16,200,800 people = £22.66 billion lost lunch money.

[4] www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/WorkingHoursAndTimeOff/DG_10029451