WFH - am I entitled to a lunch break today?

[millerjane]

I've been lucky enough to work from home during this pandemic. All morning I've been unable to sign in due to a network wide issue (according to the IT help desk). It appears I'm the only person in my team having this issue. Whilst I've been unable to work I have had to message/speak to the IT people and follow their instructions. So obviously I haven;t been working as normal.

But am I entitled to have an hour lunch despite this? Manager just rang me and seemed annoyed when I asked her to ring back in 20 minutes as I was in the middle of lunch (consists of going for a walk and eating my sarnie).

AIBU?

@millerjane

I accept I should,ve taken the call but I knew it would involve an hour of making chnges on Excel.

In that case I would take taken the call and explained that I can't sign in to my PC, and asked if you could call her later?

I don't think people are saying you're workshy, just saying that there are ways of deflecting things more diplomatically.

What are you on about?

Try reading it again. I'm sure you can work it out.

So you had already had a 40 minute break but just hadn't had your walk and sandwich? I think you should have taken the call and then eaten the sandwich. Or in future eat your sandwich at the start of your break so that the most important bit is covered if you have to shorten your break if needed. I think you should rethink your attitude and flexibility here.

Given the very specific nature of your individual extenuating circumstances I can't see how it can be helpful to post asking a question in principle only.

Talk about a massive drip feed .

OP you obviously think you are right so why ask the question, everyone has told you there were better ways of handling the situation.

AnnaBanana333, I did work it out and the conclusion is that you're contradicting yourself.

Lazypuppy, it's not a drip feed. The OP had already mentioned her mental health and medication.

A grad scheme would normally be training for a management role, so you need to be thinking about how you can demonstrate the flexibility required of a manager. This is part of the reason for additional pay , like it or not.

You definitely shouldn’t be waking up at 1am or 4 am to work - that is outside of normal flexibility and is where you should create boundaries for yourself. In a large company (I work for one too) you should be prepared to start or finish a bit early/late if required ie prep for a meeting or overrunning calls. Arrange things around your preferred lunch time ..but equally realise that things may need to change occasionally, provided its not all the time thats totally normal. I may have calls over my lunchbreak if thats the time everyone else can do - its team working.

If your boss feels it is urgent enough to call you then that gives you a clue (If IT issues happen I always let my boss know why I’m offline) ..If you answer then phone then you could say ‘I’m just finishing my lunch, I’ll get straight on to it and have it for you by 2’. You are demonstrating that you understand the urgency and have it under control. Instead you ignored her urgency and instead created another thing for her to do (call you back later).

Agree that of course you should set boundaries. Perhaps consider those for the whole “being awake at 1am” etc situations rather than this lunch thing.

I am open mouthed at a 20 something trainee telling a manager to call back in 20 minutes. If you really couldn’t take the call, for any reason at all, OP it would have been better to ask could you call them back.

If it was every day you would not be unreasonable at all to set boundaries.

It was a one off.

Thankfully where I work everyone is respected regardless of age, experience or 'rank'. My boss (extremely will respected and senior) would be mortified if she knew her team were answering calls on their breaks. I would take the call from her, not that she would ever use my personal number for work stuff.

With your update - I can see why she’s annoyed. You ask her to call back in 20 minutes - but actually will then not be doing the work she is asking of you as you’re then going into meetings all afternoon.

You update doesn't really help. Clearly you think you are right and are ignoring all the helpful replies where posters have suggested other ways you could have handled this so why ask if you don't want to listen to people?

@GreytExpectations I actually think the update is worse. “ Only just had time to read the thread. I accept I should,ve taken the call but I knew it would involve an hour of making chnges on Excel. Yesterday afternoon I was in back to back meetings so the time I chose to have a break was the only window available”

So it’s not just ignoring the call - it’s now ignoring the call as you’re then not going to be able to do the work.

What if the call was about the meetings?

I’d be incredibly pissed off if that was one of my team

[quote amillionnamechangeslater000]@GreytExpectations I actually think the update is worse. “ Only just had time to read the thread. I accept I should,ve taken the call but I knew it would involve an hour of making chnges on Excel. Yesterday afternoon I was in back to back meetings so the time I chose to have a break was the only window available”

So it’s not just ignoring the call - it’s now ignoring the call as you’re then not going to be able to do the work.

What if the call was about the meetings?

I’d be incredibly pissed off if that was one of my team[/quote]
Yeah i agree. Think I meant the update didn't help her situation but OP definitely isn't looking great due to her lack of flexibility. Hopefully she takes on board the advice provided here and considers altering her attitude a bit.

I’m sorry but your update doesn’t really help matters. You’d already had 40 minutes break, so the call came towards the end if your lunch break. As others have said, flexibility is key. You could have dealt with the call, and subsequent hours work, then gone for your walk. Also, slightly impertinent to tell your boss what to do. You probably also had down time due to not being able to work.

Very few people get strict one hour lunch breaks nowadays, or finish dead at 5pm etc (rightly or wrongly). If work needs doing, you’ll do it (within reason). Unfortunately, I think you will be seen as a non-team player or a jobsworth.

What @Tootles2 said

Also agree with the last few posts.
Your added information hasn't put you in a better light.
Also not sure why you have asked as clearly you aren't ready to hear that you were BU.

Waking up at 4am to do work is not reasonable or appropriate or sensible. You need to have a good look at your priorities if you think that is a good idea, but telling your boss it isn't convenient to ring you, and asking her to ring you back when you will be in meetings is the right thing to do.

Blimey, my dd is younger than you (just leaving school) , and she could work that out.

We have received multiple emails from HR and the wellbeing teams that the lunch break should be respected.

What this situation needed was good judgement, which you did not show. You should have taken the call and eaten while you worked, taking your walk at the end of the day. No one is saying never have a defined lunch break, just that on occasions you have to be flexible. Remember you hadn't done any work that morning. If I was your line manager I'd wonder why you didn't clean the kitchen while you were waiting for IT to fix the issue.

If however your ED means you can't be flexible about lunch, then that is a new conversation with your HR department and line manager.

As far as I can see generally speaking there is a huge discrepancy between the official company/HR line of well-being etc and what managers actually expect to be done
Have heard that from umpteen people
Cest la vie !

Really, you'd already had 40 minutes break.

I probably would have taken the call personally but I can't picture it happening anywhere I've worked anyway as they are quite rigid with lunch breaks. One lot of us goes at 12-1 and the other 1-2 because we have to be available to take calls in-between. Those saying you take lunch when it's convenient, I've never worked in a place where you could just take lunch when you wanted. If you don't take it on your allocated hour, you don't just get to take it later on at 3pm for example. Therefore if I was already 40 minutes into my hour lunch, my manager would know not to call me as I'm on lunch.

Sorry but you could have eaten while sorting out the I T problem you had

I find this absolutely ridiculous. I had a similar IT problem whilst I've been WFH and it was a nightmare. I had to do all of the on screen troubleshooting whilst on the phone to them as they couldn't be physically present, had to download apps onto my phone, log into various servers whilst talking on the phone to them, add that to the fact I only have one spot in my house where I get good mobile service, it certainly was not a break and I definitely would have taken my lunch afterwards, not scoffed down a sandwich whilst doing all that and considered that my 'break'. Some proper dictators on here, I'd hate to work for you.

It's also very common for people to physically leave the office (or now their houses) for their lunch hour (and yes everywhere I've worked has been an hour for lunch), so no manager at my office would just assume you were there and able to work when there was still 20 mins of said break left anyway.

No - but we remember your attitude and general approach
At least manager on here says they wouldn't give it a second thought if an employee asked to speak to them after lunch instead. Old managers of mine wouldn't have remembered such a tiny thing either, because they were busy managing, rather than keeping score of imagined slights.

Meh. In the teams i manage now and in the past you can guarantee that you know who will do this kind of thing and it's usually a pattern. And i definitely remember because we do annual appraisals so i regularly make notes on the good and the "needs improvement" aspect of people's work.

Well, it's swings and roundabouts. I agree that if you take your manager's call (and this will also depend on the culture of where you work) it's probably not the best idea to tell them "call me back."

So either take the call and do the related work, or don't take the call - and then call back asap and say something like "sorry, had stepped away from my desk…" and then do the related work.

Someone upthread did a "ohhhh your manager thinks they're so much more important than you" type of comment. Well, yes. They are the manager. They are more important than you. And for people on grad schemes it is worth paying attention to how all the higher ups work, which techniques are successful and which not. Which add value to the workplace/team and which not.

dYou should have taken the call and eaten while you worked* That's very bad practice and HR, if they mean this stuff about respecting the lunch break, would take a very dim view.

Remember you hadn't done any work that morning. a) she had and b) hanging on the line and following IT instructions is dull but tense, and quite draining.

If I was your line manager I'd wonder why you didn't clean the kitchen while you were waiting for IT to fix the issue. If you were my line manager I'd wonder why you had so little to think about that you thought about me cleaning my kitchen

Sorry about the bold fail