To leave work early if I miss my lunch?

[leaveitnow1244]

Just that really - if I miss my lunch break am I entitled to leave early and not mention to anyone?

They leave it to us to take lunch breaks but a training course left me with just half hour to take lunch so I didn't bother and left early instead is this bad?

I work flexibly so I would just message my boss and say I’ve not had time for lunch today so I’m going to knock off early if that’s ok, and she’d say yes it’s fine. unless it was kicking off or I had something to finish, in which case I wouldn’t ask in the first place. So it depends on your workplace really.

I have a 30min unpaid lunch break that is automatically calculated in the work hours. The core hours are 9-14 and flexible outside that. If you dont Use your lunch break then you lose it. No leaving early.

They told you not to and you still did?

why?

You’re applying the principles of flexible working without having it agreed first.
Wouldn’t be acceptable in any places that don’t have a blanket flexible working policy.

Do you work in an office job? Clock watching isn't really the sone thing in most office jobs. Once you've been there for a while, if you're a hard worker who puts in the hours and gets the work done, most decent companies don't insist on presenteeism. This isn't something I would do in my probation persons though.

This!

Christ, shocked by some of the replies, you’re an adult paid to work X amount of hours a day, if you wanna take it at the end of your day I’d 100%go for it and if your managers don’t like it I’d question if it actually effects the work place or if they’re just on a power trip.

Er, have you ever had a job?!

It's entirely appropriate for an organisation to have clear rules about start & finish times, and the requirement to take your break at a certain time is a legal one in any case.

Imagine typing such an uninformed post after all the responses so far giving the correct information!

If ever I leave early, for whatever reason, I send an email to the boss as I leave stating what time I left and why. If no email, I'd probably message them with same info. I also copy the email to myself and document why I felt leaving was OK.

Leaving early without permission is forbade in my job and others have received warnings. Every workplace is different.

it's a poor idea. You need food/fuel, you need to look away from work every day just as you need a holiday every year.

Decades ago in my position I could organise my diary. I'd always try to arrange home visits on my way home so I'd finish at 5pm but I'd be an hour closer to getting home.

I'd also often take a shortened lunch break but couldn't leave early. Our hours had to be covered. I did take the time worked back as extra time off in lieu. So the off half day here and there.

Generally you are meant to ask.

If you're a bus driver, likely not.

Legally, you have to take a 30 minute lunch break if you work over 6 hours. Your employer wouldn’t/ shouldn’t allow it

Depends on your contract, your job and your manager. It might be OK as a one off but not everyday. Do you have core hours?

Depends but I think finishing times are that as some people may need you then and not at lunch? As a teacher it's a given we don't get to have a proper lunch break or any personal time really so sorry I would assume no. Xx

Where I worked you could work part of your lunch hour to leave early if you had a good reason but only occasionally and you couldn't make a habit of it. Also we had to sign in and out so they had a register of who all were in the building in case of fire. One for each team and the supervisor would mark people off. If someone had done that they would have to have faced the wrath of our Manager and could have ended up on a disciplinary.