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?

1 hour unpaid every job I’ve been in. Generally have worked 9-5 type jobs and 35 hours a week. I force myself to take it. It helps you work better in the afternoon.

30 minutes, paid, but with the expectation that if we are busy, I will skip it, postpone it, or whittle it down.

I work 10-6 and have a 40 min break that’s paid. I also leave the office quite frequently to do downstairs and get myself a hot drink and/or cake which we don’t have to pay for. I’m sure I probably waste another 15/20 minutes throughout the day just faffing around come to think of it.

This is the first time I’ve ever had a paid break though. Never had that in any role before

One hour unpaid.

We're often short staffed though, which means I end up taking half an hour and covering someone else so they can have half an hour.

I do submit a time sheet at the end of the month though, and make sure I'm paid for the half hour covers.

(Oh, and a paid 15 minute coffee break - likewise; we skip if we're busy - and hours range hugely, from temp lads who work 6 hours on the weekend, to 50-odd. Average for me is about 35, but can vary from 20s to 50s in any given week.)

work 40 hours a week, 8 hour days

take breaks whenever i feel like - PAID.

lunch anywhere from 15 mins - 1:30hrs -PAID. For example today lunch was probably 1:20 min

On Friadys, with lunch and Fridays prayers probably 1:30 mins or more

I think you'll find 20 minutes break for 8.5 hours is illegal.

I have paid lunch breaks on paper. But in real life I simply don't have lunch breaks (neither do my colleagues). We eat at our desk while working.

I can take as long as I want (within reason!) but have to take a minimum of 30 mins. Its unpaid. Not really phrased as such, but I am paid to do X hours per week, and lunchtimes are not part of that time!

I don't really understand the pointless distinction of paid or unpaid lunch break when you are salaried. It's not really A Thing.

Sometimes I work through lunch, sometimes I take 90 mins. My salary is the same at the end of the month

I get half an hour over. 6.75hr day. I actually have no idea if this is paid or not!

Paid, half hour. Can be doing 10/11hr shifts.

As long as I wish………since I retired. 😁

45mins unpaid and regularly expected to work during lunch…..such a bug bear of mine. Bloody corporate world

This thread has been a massive eye opener for me, because during my working life which started in 1974 and ended in 2002, I was always paid for all my lunch and tea breaks. Really shocked to see that nobody gets paid breaks these days.

Unpaid. No specific length.

I have no mandated start or stop time either. Just a number of hours to bill in a week.

@Nevermindtheteacaps I’m salaried for 39 hours a week but my hours are 8-4:30 mon-Thurs and 8-3:30 on a Friday. That’s 41.5 hours I’m in work. I’m not paid for that extra 2.5 hours of the week, that’s the unpaid part. But I get into work and at 9:00 we ALL (including management!) go for breakfast for approx a half hour we have a heavily subsidised canteen, then at around 12:30 we take a half hour lunch. Those on 12 hour shifts get another evening break of a half hour too.

I work pt, and choose not to take a lunch break to leave earlier, but as I usually work for less than 6 hours a break isn't mandatory. No issues with taking a quick break to make a cuppa, plenty of opportunities to stop and share cake to celebrate a colleague's birthday etc. Very flexible hours, as long as I cover the specific tasks I need to be present for (or arrange for a volunteer or colleague to cover) I can work my paid hours pretty much whenever I like. Huge amount of trust, which means I give far above the hours I am expected to do because I am supported and valued.

One hour unpaid, bit too long for me

I'd rather thirty minutes and finish earlier but I think the traffic is even heavier so it wouldn't achieve much!

One hour unpaid lunch break. No other breaks are standard. I have an extra hours break spread through the day, unpaid, as a medical adjustment

Unpaid. Duration is up to me as I largely manage my own schedule but if I’m working 6 hours or more I have to record a break of at least 20 minutes. I usually take 30-40 on a normal day and up to a couple of hours if I’m slotting something into the day (lunch with a friend,
appointments, etc).

30 mins unpaid
2 x 15 mins paid

9hr shift

I'm not in the UK, but have never heard of anyone having a paid lunch break!!! I had an hour, except for in a couple of temp jobs where it was half an hour, plus two paid tea breaks in every job.

Technically an hour unpaid , never able to take it though , NHS. Just eat at the desk , 12.5 hour day.

I work shifts and deliberately do shifts not long enough to mandate a break as I wouldn't get paid anyway.

When I worked in an office I always assumed my lunch breaks were paid in my salary but actually they weren't as my salary covered a 37.5 hour week while I was in for 40.