To ask if you take/get your break(s) at work?

[dollyodee]

Just a query as I see a lot of mnetters state that they don't get a break? And a lot of people seem to think that the more you earn the less entitled you are to your break.!

So do you take your break? I take my morning coffee/breakfast break and a lunch break. I'm on over 50k. Same with dh he's on over 53k and he takes his lunch!

I only get an unpaid lunch of 30 minutes.
Because of my job I’m not always able to take it all, but I don’t mind as I want to get the job done.

Nope. “Breaks” like that aren’t really a thing post school surely?

Paid lunch of half hour and yes the bosses insist we all take it.
Before COVID they provided our lunch too.
First time I've experienced this in hospitality.

5zeds...yep I work in pharma and it's site wide for us to have a morning break (9ish) and a lunch break (between 12-2)...I'm off sick today though

I don't get scheduled breaks. The job needs to be done but I am free to manage my time as I see fit.

I have been in my current job for almost 3 years now, from day one I have never had a break ! Lunch is eaten at my desk as I work, although I do take 5 minutes to scan the news sites. Drinks are readily available throughout the day but again there are no breaks. It just seems to be the culture here, I have gotten use to it now.

I get an unpaid 30 min lunch break when I'm in the office. I rarely take it though, usually just eat as I go.

Yep, scheduled
2 x 15 mins and a 30 min lunch and yes we all take them

I don't have scheduled breaks and often don't take a lunch break - I try to stretch my legs at some point if I can. It's not healthy and is definitely worse if I'm working from home.

My contract is 35 hours so my lunches are unpaid, and I absolutely take them unless I'm snowed under. I also take frequent screen breaks. My work is all done to a high standard and luckily my boss/company are supportive of making sure we don't burn out.

My husband's on 65k and while he's entitled to a break, he doesn't always get one!
I however, take two breaks when I'm only entitled to one. Haha.

I can take a small break (10-15 mins) whenever and so does DH. We have an hour unpaid lunch.

Pre Coronavirus I would take my lunch break in some guise, although not always for a full hour. On the other hand, I'd sometimes go for a 50 minute run and end up taking over an hour once shower and nipping to the shop for a sandwich time was included. It was never an issue and I was normally the most senior person in the team on site anyway.

Now I rarely take my hour, but I just take breaks whenever I want throughout the day. I was shattered yesterday afternoon and had a 25 minute nap around 3:30pm. On Tuesday I took over an hour again, as I went to the shops. Some days I don't take anything longer than the time it takes to make my sandwich as I am very busy.

Civil Servant. We get a morning break 20 minutes and afternoon break 15 minutes paid and an unpaid lunch break (work flexi so as long as you want but at least 30 mins)
In the office I always took my morning break and had my breakfast and my lunch break but tended to work through my afternoon tea break. At home I make sure I take my afternoon.

Before my current job, I worked in call centres where breaks were allocated and rigid. So I always took my break and often felt bored but some days, annoyed that I couldn't choose, or 'get away with' having a slightly longer one on fridays to meet someone for coffee.

Now we have a protected hour, which is a good time to get lunch, but I find now I manage my own day, and work from home, I don't take a specific break as such but will stop for 5/10 mins here and there, take half hour to make my lunch and potter, and have got into a habit of around 9-10... depending on meetings, going down and making toast / smoothie / cereal (I start at 07.30 (or earlier). So I suppose with coffee etc. I do still spend an hour on break, just not all at once. Which I'm really enjoying.

When I was in the office we'd all have a 15min screen break at the same time morning and afternoon, plus 1h lunch (at different times).

I'll be going back wfh and I'll still take them. Especially if I'm allowed to work from the spare room at DMs house then I can feed/cuddle DS2.

We have 3 breaks and unless it’s chaos we take them, and sometimes an extra tea break in the afternoon if all is well.
There are people who faff about and don’t come at the time we are asked to and expect to take longer on the other end and that knocks onto the next staff break as it’s split

No, never get a break and work extra hours. Could take a break but would mean more evening work for me.

I'll have a break and some time to eat lunch at some point throughout the working day, but I don't have a set hour, and I would absolutely work through if something urgent came up. Currently I'm working from home and so is DH, so we do attempt to match up our meeting free time and grab a sandwich together away from screens, but if my phone rang or a Teams call came through while I was at lunch, I'd definitely answer it.

I also don't work to rote and log off on the dot each night. But this works both ways - if I had to pick up a child from school I'd do it (as long as I didn't have a meeting scheduled) and not need to specifically work back the hours etc. I'm trusted to manage my own workload in my own time.

I think junior staff with less autonomy over hours tend to be more likely to want to stick to set timelines, set lunch breaks, logging on and off on the dot etc. There comes a point where you are more focused on getting the job done than putting a set number of hours in, and that tends to come with seniority.

I have an unpaid lunch hour each day and when I was in the office, rarely took it (just used to eat at my desk as I brought my own lunch in and there was nowhere else to go to eat). Now I'm WFH, I go and make a sandwich, then eat it away from my desk and also manage to get a dog walk in so I'm taking the full hour most days (meetings permitting).

No im a nurse so you can see why.

Currently we take breaks as and when we can and we do get them. Sometimes we get a couple of 10 mins because we're so busy, sometimes we get an hour stretch. Depends on workload at the time.
Previous job in hospitality, had 30 min per 6 hours deducted, rarely took it. Something I'd throw a bowl of chips down my throat standing boh because I'd been there 12+ hours and starving, rarely had time to pee even.
In hospitality it's expected and a culture, it's one of the reasons why a lot of places are a revolving door.

We get a 15min break in the morning, an unpaid 40min lunch and a 15min break in the afternoon but we would often skip the afternoon break to make sure we finish at a decent time.
It was quite a manual job though and in the Summer and Winter you need those breaks to cool down/warm up.
(Not high paid though)

Unpaid 30 minute lunch break is all I get...however I can wander away from my desk freely to make cuppas etc without having to 'log' the time.

I take my lunch break later in the afternoon to collect DD2 from school. Less than perfect but normal childcare options aren't available and I have a decent management team.

In my last job I got an unpaid lunch hour and 2 15 minute paid breaks. I rarely actually took the short breaks due to workload. I always took the lunch and I would be quite firm with people who tried to interrupt it. I refuse to work for free and my employer definitely didn’t expect me too, just occasionally my colleagues expected me to even though none of them would have!