How do you spend your lunch hour?

[WhaleyAwesome]

Just that.

I get thirty minutes as most people do, but when I did get an hour many moons ago I went for a walk, paid bills, did my online shop, read a book, did some knitting…surely it’s not that hard to think about how to fill your lunch hour? (That last part of the sentence in response to your snark )

@MaMelon you mean my responses to snide comments of which you have now decided to indulge in too?

@girlmom21 really love your ideas. May organise a secret bird / duck food stash for during the walks in my drawer.

Yes - those

You could always look at the suggestions from people who have 30 minute breaks and double them?

If you read the thread you will see I was replying to a poster that gave no ideas...

Half hour here so enough to eat lunch and have a brew and natter with colleagues.
If I had an hour i'd probably watch last nights emmerdale!

I have the best answer - I work 7 minutes from my office and it shuts for an hour every day (boss started this during Covid to deter us from bringing food in and staying at our desks to eat because that might, er, spread the virus or something, I forget), so I come home and eat my lunch and go on MN.

Gym.
Usually stretch my hour.
But start early and finish late.
And eat my sandwich at my desk when I return.
No one says anything but my place is pretty laid back.

When I worked in the office I had a sandwich at my desk.

Now that I wfh - I have a sandwich at my desk.

If I am in the office I go to the library, go to the specialist shops we don't have around here, sketch, visit the art gallery or have lunch with a mate...
At home I do chores, go for a walk or potter in the garden.

NHS employee and I now choose a 30 min break (in theory) so I can get home to my little boy. In reality my break is working while trying to inhale a sarnie.
When I did have a reliable lunch break and didn't have a family to go home to I'd run - a 5k run gave me time to shower and be back at my desk. Or a long walk. This post makes me realise why I can't lose my baby weight 🤣

I have an hour. Take a walk for 40 min, come back home and get myself lunch and eat it. Then back to work

If I get a break I power nap

I rarely take a lunch break but I did a few months ago and had sex with my husband as no children in house!

Lunch “hour”?

That would be great!
More like sitting at my desk.

I work. Usually, checking up on emails, preparing for my next lesson, running a detention or student activity, otherwise I'm dealing with students. Don't think I've ever had a full lunch hour to myself, ever. Not in 20+ years of teaching. As when the bell goes, you have always got to be in the classroom and fully ready for the students to start the next lesson.

Usually I do find time to check my emails and social media though.

Husband usually sits and watches a dvd during his lunch break, he's been working at home during lockdown. I find it a very odd concept!

Watch a good programme, have a nap, shower, shop….

When I worked in the office I had a sandwich at my desk. Now that I wfh - I have a sandwich at my desk

How depressing. You had a chance to change things up and create a new way of doing things but have done nothing…

I don't have one. Never had one for 20 years. I choose to work 6 hours straight or 7.5 at my other part time job, and eat a sandwich whilst I work. I'm not concerned at the legality or HR side, because it works for me.

"If you spend your lunch hours doing something active / outdoors - do you ever than have issues with people complaining when you are eating at your desk during your working hours?"

Yes this would hack some people off. Doesn't bother me because all the firms I work at are very relaxed and I drink loads of coffee and go to the toilet whenever I want and eat tonnes throughout the day so none of this is relevant.

But if you are doing the above, eating a sandwich after having been away from your desk for one hour exercising, yes this would probably hack a lot of people off and they would report it. because you aren't fully working and this is just wrong. You must see this?

I eat with the children for 30 minutes (opening packets and dealing with disputes), during which time I also catch up on emails/ admin and then I take them out to play for 30 minutes (offering health and safety orders advice and dealing with disputes).

45 minute nap- in my dreams.

Bike ride, laundry, cooking, eat a bit, general errands. Maybe a walk with DH. Call mother

When at the office, I have coffee with a colleague. Or by myself and go for a walk.

When wfh I didn't bother with one.

I work on quite a remote site and have half an hour so me and a colleague go for a brisk walk every day with a cuppa in a thermos cup and have a natter as we go.
My office is pretty casual though so nobody is bothered by eating at desks. A lot of of our team eat breakfast in the office on early mornings.
DH works near town so he goes to the gym in his lunch hour, does a half hour class and has time to shower before getting back to work.

@Oblomov21 No I don't see that - I can "fully work" and eat at the same time (and had to in my old work place) as I was never able to take my lunch break away from my desk.

No different to people eating snacks, drinking, eating breakfast at their desks etc.

Are you working in an office or from home? What sort of clothes will you be wearing? How much private space will you have? Is there anywhere nice to go for a walk? Are you sitting most of the day? If you are, then I think I would go for a 20/30 minute walk with an audiobook, do 10 minutes of yoga if you have the space, and then eat in the last 20/30 minutes.

I wouldn't eat at my desk outside my lunch hour at a new job: if other people do then maybe, but you want to make a good first impression and eating at your desk when you get a paid hour for lunch seems a tad cheeky (though I haven't worked anywhere with paid breaks or a full hour for lunch before, so maybe it's quite common).

If you're working from home and no one will know that you're scoffing a sandwich then I would go for a lunch swim a few times a week.