How long is your lunchbreak at work and do you get paid for it?

[FenellaBestwick]

I'm a recent returner to work and I'm shocked but not surprised at the erosion of work conditions. I get half an hour for lunch, unpaid. It means there's little time to re-charge your batteries. Just get to the staffroom, wolf your food and get back on the shop-floor (care sector). When I last worked (pre dc), I had a full hour paid and 15mins break morning and afternoon. What are your lunch breaks like?

We get a breakfast break (20-30mins) paid and a lunch break of 30mins unpaid.

Doesn't apply to the OP but I find the idea of counting breaks in 15 mins increments very odd for salaried jobs. The civil service used to have the two tea breaks written into their contracts! Not sure if still a thing.
I've never worked anywhere that clock watches to that extent. Current job unpaid break on paper, but nobody's stopped me from taking more or leaving early/late. I get paid a fixed amount to deliver a certain amount of work, and I do it with the time I see fit.

Never had a paid Lunch break
the only paid break I had was 15mins on a 6 1/2 hour shift

Flexibile, but I do 35 hours a week and can kind of set my own hours as long as the whole team are covering the core hours between themselves. I wfh 4 days a week and when I’m home I tend to take the full hour, sometimes more, so I can do things like go for a swim. When I’m in the office, unless I’m going out for lunch with a colleague which I sometimes do, I eat my lunch at my desk and leave an hour earlier.
Other breaks during the day is kind of down to us managing our own work loads. So when in the office if I’m busy I might not go outside for a vape but if im quiet I might go out several times.
Never had a paid lunch hour though in any job I’ve been in.

@CountryGirl89 i suspect it’s partly to do with the law around mandatory breaks and that some jobs do need times breaks to ensure that everyone gets a break and yet the service/work still gets done eg factory work, retail, schools, care industry.
An office based job that just needs the work done that day/week//month isn’t going to need to clock watch so long as it gets done within that timeframe.

I negotiated 1/2 an hour unpaid, so that I could finish at 4.30pm.

Half an hour unpaid although originally it was an hour. We all wanted less so had it reduced to half an hour as most times we just eat at our desk trying (and usually failing) to avoid phone calls, people popping in on work related matters etc.

However, if you need to take longer you can, as long as you make up the time

30 mins and don't get paid

1 hour unpaid. Contracted for 35 hours plus whatever other time is required to do the job.

In reality I login about 8:15 and log off around 6 to 6:30, sometimes I take 45 minutes but often it's only the 20 mins it takes to make and eat lunch.

I only stay because I work from home!

What lunch break? we eat at our desks while working. There is no communal area for us to eat and management 'cannot see anything wrong with eating while doing some work on the computer '

Yes, that's why I specified salaried jobs and mentioned not relevant to the OP.
I guess the law is probably why breaks are specified in the contract.
Personally I don't like breaks for myself. Other people talk about 'recharging their batteries' but I tend to knuckle down for hours at a stretch, then completely relax after. I'd rather finish early but hey, them's the rules.

@CountryGirl89 agree with preferring to finish earlier - I only work to get the money and nowt else!! But I’m on shift work due to 24/7 needs of the business, so I’m taking all and any paid breaks and meals I can. It’s very rare that we can leave early due to ratio requirements. Definitely not doing the unpaid breaks again.

One hour lunch unpaid, no coffee breaks.

In reality, one hour working through lunch unpaid, no coffee breaks. Welcome to the public sector ☹️

@FenellaBestwick Greetings fellow Health & Social Care slave 😂😂😂 at our place (large, well known provider ‘not for profit’ lmfao) we seem relatively fortunate and are entitled to 40 mins paid over a 12hr shift although smokers have their ciggy breaks deducted from this.

Most of us grab 30 mins in the middle of the shift - I always take mine well away from everyone because the nature of the work we do is mentally & physically intensive so eating & privacy is essential to survive!

Unpaid. However long I want within reason and I get my 8 hours of work done.
Usually take 30minutes max so I don't need to work too late.

Always unpaid lunch - starting off as a part-time waitress/ bar staff etc 30 years ago and now senior finance job. They didn’t force me to work for free during my unpaid break though.

We get zero hours lunch break.

Unpaid 30 mins although when I started work it was 1 hour paid. I actually prefer the 30 mins unpaid though as when I was paid I felt like I should be working through my lunch while now I also take half an hour.

NHS - 30mins unpaid, no breaks.

Support Staff in a school

30 minutes, unpaid.

20 minutes today as I had to go and fix something. Often 20 minutes as need to do a first aid or an “accident change”.

I work 35 hours a week, can take as much or as little time for lunch as I like as long as I'm still working 35 hours. Some days I take 30 minutes and just eat. Some days I go for a walk or to the gym and take longer

Officially an hour unpaid but there is an unspoken expectation that we don’t take it.

We have no set lunch breaks. As long or as short as I like. But meetings can be booked over lunch so flexibility goes both ways. We are contracted for either 37.5 or 40 hours a week but no one really checks.

30 mins unpaid, 37.5 hour week. Never seems like enough time, I'd rather have 45 and be at work an extra 15 mins really.

1 hour, unpaid, tough hardly ever take it.
Unless I work from France, where you’re literally dragged away from the desk at midday and you absolutely can’t eat at your desk! Whatever happens, it’s lunch and everything else waits, full stop.