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?

It really depends on the nature of the IT outage. I've had issues where I've been tied to my laptop and phone as IT try (and get me to try) different things. Exhausting and I'd be really keen to have a break after that. If OP needs to (for mental well-being) have her lunch at a set time, then it makes sense to block that out in her diary.

As other posters have said, tone matters rather than the boundary. Personally YANBU but context is always good.

Quite a few martyrs on this thread though!

Next time, take the call, then have the walk/lunch afterwards. If the call involved an hour's work afterwards then say to your boss you're just going to grab your lunch and then you'll get on to it. I would imagine your boss is now very irritated. Apologise and move on. Don't overthink it.

@IntermittentParps

Then in this scenario you'd have wasted more of your time phoning the OP fruitlessly than if you'd dropped the OP a quick message saying 'When shall we talk about x?' and then got on with other stuff until the agreed time

Only if you’re likely to have a selection of times open in the next few days. For me this would be unusual - my calendar is usually booked solid for at least three weeks.

As for the idea that wolfing down lunch makes someone a martyr, it’s simply a smart business choice. Over the years, particularly as a woman, there will be multiple times when you need flexibility.

Employment is give and take. Wasting flexibility on choosing to eat a sandwich won’t serve the OP or anyone else well in the long run.

You were on your break, it's completely irrelevant what else you did that morning or what you were planning to do on your break. Perfectly reasonable to push the call back

@SurreyHillsGirl

OP, don't listen to anyone who tells you 'it states I get an hour in my contract, so I'm taking that hour, it's my right, blah blah blah'

These people do not do well in the workplace

This. I often wonder if some people who respond to these types of thread have ever had a job.

Or perhaps they’re like the odd employee I meet every year who wonders why their career has stalled or they can’t get promotion, when they’re out the door bang on 5 every day, after disappearing to Pilates for an hour even when there’s an issue brewing and thinks texting throughout a meeting “because it’s important” is acceptable behaviour.

You don't get boundaries on a Grad Scheme. This is the point in your career where you prove yourself a team player and be flexible with your time.

Yep. You hadn't left the house, so there was no reason not to take the call, and have your lunch hour afterwards. You're entitled to a lunch hour but not to it being at the exact moment that you choose.

It's insane to piss off your boss with an 'I'm entitled to my lunch hour' rebuffal, at your stage of employment. I can guarantee that he had a LOT more on his plate than you did, and he probably didn't have time to reschedule you. He also probably doesn't get a lunch hour himself, so your insisting on one at that exact time, wouldn't have gone down well.

Depends if you're the kind of person doing the kind of job which is very much about clock-watching.

I do a job where Inwork until it's done. There's no thinking about if I've had 10 mins to eat a sandwich whilst at my desk or if I'm still working at 9pm, but equally I can nip out for a few hours in the day if I need to. I don't clock watch about work or breaks and neither does my boss. I expect to be available to my boss anytime during the day through....and if they call and I answer I expect to speak with them. If I was out And not available I just wouldn't answer and ring back shortly - but I'd probably spot their call and make sure I got back to them pretty quickly.

But I'm not paid minimum wage and don't do a job which is tightly defined in terms of hours and breaks and so I expect to be flexible.

I think some jobs are very much clock-watching type jobs. People work exact hours and are loathe to do a minute extra or lose an hour of their lunch, and often their level of pay probably justifies them refusing to be flexible. However, most people even in these situations will appreciate the benefits of a little flexibility on unusual situation days such as an IT problem and be willing to be a bit flexible. A sandwich can usually be delayed as can a walk...in fact, most people will manage to eat at their desk as a one off if needed, and perhaps could then just finish work a bit early that day or next. Being totally rigid even when circumstances have made things tricky never makes you look like much of a team player. There's the letter of the law (60 mins for my lunch) and the spirit of it...and most workplaces need a but if goodwill,me specially now and willingness to be a bit flexible does help.

@StillCoughingandLaughing later on the OP said "I was literally just going out of the door"

@millerjane

The call would involve about an hours worth of work. I had not eaten due to the technical issues.

At first I put YANBU, but changed it to YABU after reading your responses. Why could you not eat due to technical issues? Surely you could have found time to eat your sandwich between messaging/speaking to IT?

If I was your manager, I would be very unhappy with your response and think that you were taking the mickey! Also, if there were redundancies, I know who I would prefer to keep if it was between someone who refused to take my call and insisted on going for lunch (when they hadn’t worked all morning), and someone who took my call and showed they were willing to be flexible with their time!

Only if you’re likely to have a selection of times open in the next few days. For me this would be unusual - my calendar is usually booked solid for at least three weeks.
So if it was going to need discussing/doing so urgently, why was it not already booked in? That sounds like bad planning.

As for the idea that wolfing down lunch makes someone a martyr, it’s simply a smart business choice. Over the years, particularly as a woman, there will be multiple times when you need flexibility.
'particularly as a woman'
That's depressing.

This reflect different attitudes towards management. Some workers see them as the enemy - who are always trying to get an extra few minutes work out of you, and your key thing is to resist this and make sure you only do the bare minimum and stick to the letter of the law in terms of contractual rights. Other people view it as a team-thing. They see a bigger picture and know that sometimes they can help by being flexible and sometimes they might need a favour or flexibility too.

At the moment, everyone has been encouraged to be flexible and has had to be. Working from home has required changes for people. Having kids at home and other caring responsibilities etc has meant many firms have been pretty flexible and when work is done and even how much is done. Many employees have been willing to be flexible too - recognising that the people they deal with might also face constraints on their time, and so helping out and being flexible when you can, all just helps difficult situations run a bit smoother for everyone. Sometimes it means you might be a bit inconvenienced, but you should also try to remember how you sometimes gain too or others are a bit flexible or helpful to you.

I would have taken the call, or at least ask to finish eating my sandwich and then call back five minutes later. I would have definantly postponed the walk.

Some of the responses on this thread explain why employees are afraid to ring in when they're sick, afraid to speak up when they have issues at work and why they let managers treat them like dirt.

This leads to poor mental health, poor boundaries and, often, employers who expect so much more from their staff than what they're being paid for.

Op: I'm currently on furlough (yea, one of those lazy bastards whose getting 80% of their wages for 'doing nothing' even though I'd give anything to be at my desk working) but at the beginning of all this, before furlough, we were working from home and had IT issues. None of us used the down time to take our lunch, it was from 9am -12pm. We were able to write stuff up on word rather than straight on to our system so no time was lost as such.

My boss is the kind of man who, if he was in work 30 mins early, would definitely go home 30 minutes early. If he had to take a 10 min call in his 60 min lunch break would definitely take ten mins more or leave ten mins early.

So I guess I would follow the manager's lead.

IMO you did no harm drawing line and saying to call you back, but I guess it depends what office protocol is.

That's depressing.

But sadly true.

Interesting - these responses aren't what I'd expect but certainly something to bear in mind if I move workplace! I wouldn't have answered the phone at all and if I had and said I was on lunch my manager would've apologised and called back later...

Seriously, unless you're a brain surgeon on call, or your boss is a literal tinpot dictator

There are things which need looked at urgently which aren't brain surgery.

Work doesn't stop just so an entitled Grad who has done no work all day can have lunch.

Looking at my Boss' calendar today he has back to back Teams calls. with very little time in between. If something came up that he needed me to have a look at before the end of the day in order to meet a client deadline, he would have had very little time to get in contact with me to pass it on so I could have it dealt with. And right now is not the time to be pissing clients off.

Tbh there are people in my organisation who are always available/working and I just want to maintain my boundaries
There's a difference between maintaining your boundaries and being inflexible, and you'll need to get better at identifying it if you work in a sector that has an expectation of availability and flexibility.
For a second, consider your company and your manager. If they had been waiting all morning to have the call with you but couldn't because of a problem with your IT then the IT problem affected their schedule and then you deciding to go out for lunch pushed it back even further. You could have eaten at your desk. Arguably you could have eaten whilst they were fixing the IT problem. No-one asked you not to eat. But it would be expected that you'd be available for work rather than going out when you've already lost a morning's work because of an IT issue (and that's not even taking into consideration whether the issue was your fault or not).

This thread is a perfect example of one of the main problems of WAH - the lack of separation between home and working life. When you WAH its important for your mental wellbeing as well as professional efficiency to take breaks from the work, much as you would do in the office. When you are in the workplace you probably have an assigned break and lunch time when you leave your work station. Also you dont sit at your desk like a robot. You will probably look away from your work to interact with a colleague on business matters. Or there may be other non computer jobs to do like calls, filing, admin etc.

When you have work tasks to do its very stressful to be unable to get on with them for the tech reasons the OP outlined. It could be that she had to constantly provide feedback to tech support, rather than having long gaps in which she could have done other tasks or eaten her lunch. This creates anxiety knowing that you have work to do before you can finish for the shift. I know the feeling.

If I had been on the way out the door for a short break and lunch I would have taken my break and then phoned the boss back to explain. I do not feel the OP is being unreasonable as she had been on edge all morning and unanble to follow her normal routine.

Minty, you and your boss must be Very Much More Important than a little person like me can even imagine. I do feel humbled.

@intermittantparp

It might be depressing but it’s reality and at least partly based on how woman typically chose to prioritise their obligations.

E.g. I have very, very rarely missed a DCs nativity play, or ballet recital, sports day or parents evening (and I have 4 DC so there have been many) unlike many of my male colleagues. Because those things are important to me as a mother.

I am able to do that because if my boss wants me on a call at 2am with the China office, or he needs an urgent response to an email at 11pm he gets it. I have earned credit by not sweating the small stuff so I can have the big stuff. You can’t have everything and it’s a trade off.

You might read that and think it’s “not fair” or I’m a “martyr” or I have “poor boundaries” but I am yet to meet a successful woman who doesn’t employ a significant degree of give and take in her working life. If you’ve managed it then, sincerely, I applaud you but you have to recognise that you’re an exception.

I think this thread shows the difference between people who regularly WFH and those who have only started doing so because of the pandemic. The latter have an expectation that everything is ad hoc so it's fine to take a break when you want, to have DCs in the background, to lose time because of IT issues, etc. The former know you need to maintain a professional approach and be results focused.

An hour? I don't think I've ever worked anywhere that gives you an hour for lunch. I'd rather have half hour and finish earlier.
But yes you're entitled to your lunch and a break, especially if you are in front of a computer all day.

Come on, unless you are IT support yourself, you've had time this morning.

All the people on here saying that a lunch break deserves absolute respect and can't ever be delayed.. presumably you never expect flexibility from your employer either? I'm respectful of my team's need for flexibility especially while we all work from home, but in return would be very pissed off if that meant that after a morning of not being able to do any work, they wouldn't delay their walk for half an hour or less to have an timely phone conversation.

I had not eaten due to the technical issues.

Why are you rendered unable to eat due to a computer problem?

I had a bit of a wtf moment reading the OP. Then I recognised the username. That explains it all.