Do you suffer from "lunch-ism" at work?

[justdivein]

Like many people I'm working from home at the moment. On paper we can take lunch whenever we like, and for me that is usually at 12, because that's when I get hungry, and when my DH (who is working in another room) also gets hungry. Our daily lunch date is one of the perks of working from home.

However ... in a bid to improve the work-life balance of people who are too disorganised to mark their preferred lunch time in their online calendar , so end up with back-to-back meetings, our management now suggests that everyone should generally avoid booking meetings between 1-2pm. So, all of a sudden:

1. the preferred lunchtime of (presumably approximately) 50% of staff is considered less sacrosanct than that of the other 50% of staff,
2. my tentatively reserved 12-1 slot is being regularly and un-apologetically breached in order to leave the 1-2 slot free,
3. if I want to protect my preferred lunch slot, whilst also respecting the 1-2pm curfew, the combined effect is a significant reduction in the number of meeting slots available to book.

Rant over ... it's time to draw a line in the sand ... I'm off to convert my tentative lunch booking into a fully blocked out slot.

Also I’m assuming this isn’t happening every single day so most of the time you’ll be free to have your lunch when you fancy?

I know it shouldn’t be a race to the bottom but at least you get lunch. I’m either teaching or in meetings or catching up with a gazillion emails and shove something down while in a meeting or working in my office.

A lunch HOUR?

It's not the worst problem in the world.

Is Mumsnet only for discussing the world's worst problems?

I tend to avoid arranging meetings between 1200-1400. I work in a large organisation and many of my colleagues start work by 0730 so would be starving by 12.

Same here! My work has introduced a protected 1-2pm hour where we don't do meetings/calls etc. But it means if you try to have lunch earlier you're screwed. And I'm definitely a 12pm luncher!

First world problem, true. But it's still annoying!

I'm lucky to get a lunch ! If I do it's a 10 minute at my desk. The joys of working for NHS during a pandemic!

• I'd find 12 way too early for lunch as by the time we're home from work and have cooked tea it's about 7pm.

If I have lunch at 1.30 then meals are better spread out.*
But if you have lunch at 12 and tea at 7pm then you have an opportunity for mid-afternoon cake, to sustain you.

Im an 11:30 lunch gal myself haha

Do people seriously take a whole hour for lunch every day? I presume that's not included in your contracted hours so it means you're working later?
I eat when I'm hungry and will just grab 10 mins at my desk usually. Id rather crack on and finish work earlier than sit around for an hour in the middle of the day.

I've never had the luxury of a lunch hour in fifteen years of working. What's it like?

justdivein You need to introduce some ‘elevenses’ into your routine!
I think 1pm is my preferred lunch time to give me a shorter afternoon.

I would LOVE to have a protected hour each day in my12 hour + days (wouldn’t care when).

I’m used to moving my lunch around my meetings, even when I wasn’t working from home. In the office, my preferred lunch was 1.30 because by the time I came back at 2, I only had 2-3 hours left depending on what time I finished. However, sometimes I’d have meetings that started at 2 and I’d need to prep so have lunch early. Sometimes I had meetings 12-2 so I’d have lunch at 11.30 and a snack at 3.

Even working from home, I’m having to be flexible. I take lunch at 12.30 with DH most days but occasionally it gets moved due to one of us. Yesterday I had a 3 hour teams call ending at 1. I had another meeting a 1.30. So I took 20 minutes on the sofa in between, then in the afternoon, I took a 10 minute break in the garden.

I have also never booked out my lunch space. That’s the kind of thing that would get a at our place. The only time I’ve put lunch in my calendar is if I’m meeting someone and having a longer lunch.

@XiCi I get 30 mins unpaid and 2 x 15 mins paid so work 8.5hrs a day. Can't finish earlier even if we chose to miss our lunch

@XiCi I have to be available from and to certain hours, with the exception of a lunch break. There isn’t the option of working through and finishing earlier, it would just be... working through and finishing at the same time. Plenty of jobs are like that, though many are filled with the kind of competitive misery-mongers outdoing each other in this thread about how they not only don’t take a lunch hour or eat, they actually reverse time to work a longer day, with no breakfast either.

I’ve always taken my full hour, to eat or read a book or go for a walk. It’s healthy.

As an early luncher I agree but you're clearly having too many meetings. Any meeting booked between 12-2 should be an emergency.

Eat at 12 while working then at 1pm go out for a walk or something.

I couldn't wait til 1pm. When working I usually have breakfast at 6am, I start feeling a bit sick and have lunch around 11.30am! I also have tea about 5pm or even a bit earlier though so have all my meals very early!

You get a lunch break? Lucky thing

I'm a 12 luncher if I get the choice too, just take it at 12 on days where there aren't meetings!

People being sneery about someone actually taking their lunch hour can do one. If it's possible with your job role and in your contract that you have an hour, you ABSOLUTELY should be taking it - especially if you're wfh at the moment because you need to break the day up and ensure you're not just staring at your computer all day.

Don't get me wrong, I'd be annoyed if something happened unexpectedly and we all had to pitch in - we'd probably order in and eat as we worked in the office - and nobody was flexible, but 95% of the time I expect and plan for my team to take their full allotted hour. There's nothing motivating about forcing staff to work their breaks to 'prove their dedication' (and to the staff in careers where you never get to take their breaks - I'm sorry! But the system is shit, and breaks are for a reason)

Bloody hell, wish I got a lunch hour.

Turn the camera off in the meeting and just chow down on your sarnie at 12?

I am an early luncher too
Start work by 8 (often earlier) with coffee and toast
15 minute coffee break at 10
Lunch usually around 12 for up to an hour (depending on what is going on)
Afternoon tea around 3.30
Then I am usually unproductive until 5 ish although still logged in if needed when I break to make dinner, exercise and other household tasks
Usually back on for an hour later in the evening when refreshed.

I am wfh mostly and although I have to be responsive and lead a team who work roughly 9-5.30 there are no set times for anything, including lunch and I just work around what people want within reason. At the beginning of lockdown I tried to introduce a system where you marked when you were available and when not. It seems beyond most of the company so it is now just assumed that any time between 9&5 is available
Today I had a meeting (out of the house) 9-10.30
Then I took my lunch break from 10.30-11.30 as I was out in the car and so I ran errands and picked up supplies.
Was back at my desk for the next meeting scheduled for noon.
Currently trying to empty my inbox

Count yourself lucky, i have clients in time zones 1-4 hours ahead. I dont ever take a lunch break as someone always calls, so i make and eat a sarni between calls. It has been thus for the last 25 years!