How often/many breaks do you take if you have a desk based job?

[Cluelessness]

Started new role which is sat in front of a computer all day. Entitled to a 30 min break which people seem to take around lunch time. Would I be unreasonable to take a 10 min break every hour or so? I’m finding it so boring and not at all healthy.
What is considered as ok?

10 whole minutes break every hour seems a lot, but I definitely leave my desk must hours to fill up my water bottle, pop to the loo, make a coffee. They can't expect you to not move from your desk at all apart from your lunch break?

You are entitled to 5 mins every hour when using DSE equipment all day

Yeah I probably get up once an hour for about 5-10 mins. To get a drink/have a wee/go to speak to a a colleague if I'm in the office. If you're getting all your work done in the time you've been given to do it, I don't see the issue personally.

I think were all different and have to find our own way to get the best from ourselves to get the job done. I would struggle without breaks in concentration and my work would suffer in quality, so take natural breaks inbetween tasks when needed and as inflow of work allows. I've had to learn to live with a variety of health issues, including stress and anxiety and am best suited to this style of working. I don't take the piss and frequently adjust my work pattern to make sure everything gets done, staying late etc if needed. I like to think I'm a good colleague and employee in that I help out whenever I can and take on extra tasks as needed, so it all balances out. Team and management seem happy with my output so it's all good. Sometimes I don't take a lunch break, just eat at my desk, but just have short, frequent ones to stretch legs etc. Other days I just have one 30-60 min break in the middle! I could not go back to rigid breaks times, the thought petrifies me tbh and I think I'm very lucky, although I checked it out before starting. It's very valuable to me to be trusted to work this way.

Gosh. Is that long term? 11 or 12 hour days with a few trips to the loo. Are you worried about your long term health?

It is not healthy to seat at a computer all day without breaks.

Best way to damage your eyes, back, not to mention that you will work better is you take a breather and then start again.

Most workplaces I have worked in have as part of their induction health and safety training that reminds you to rest your eyes away from the screen now and then and to take short breaks.

It is bizarre how some people are so conditioned to behave like robots and congratulate themselves for doing so...

Of course this is tricky if you are in a call centre or have a reception job but for bog standard office jobs it is perfectly possible to do.

''@Romeiswheretheheartis
A 10 min break every hour would be unreasonable - that's about 1 hr/day being paid for doing no work.''

But the point is you are paid to deliver specific tasks and workload. Taking short breaks means you are more likely to alert and more productive during your work day. You could be staring at your computer for 3 hours doing sod all because you are overtired or you could take a 10 minute break to breathe and recharge and do everything that needs doing properly.

We "officially" have a 30 min lunch break but i rarely get time for that. i have coffee and toilet breaks but definitely not on a hourly basis. Quite often i'm doing a piece of work that takes 2-3 hours and i know walking away from it for 5 mins will break the roll i'm on 😂

You're not, there is no law about it, just guidance
It could be a change of activity so making a phone call, going to a meeting, making written notes
It doesn't have to be an actual break

I often do pomodoro too, especially if I'm trying to get on with a boring or difficult task. I have the alarm just set to flash on my phone, so it doesn't disturb people.

25 minutes focus and then five minutes stand up and stretch, walk to the window, get a coffee, tidy something or go in the garden if wfh - it definitely helps me work more productively. I can't focus for long periods - if I have something I need to get done and spend 2-3 hours sat still doing it, I then really struggle to do anything else properly that day.

Been doing these hours and longer for the last 7 years now (since I got divorced) somehow has to pay the bills. I often go straight to another job, to work until midnight, and it’s actually not unusual for me to remember to eat after two or three days of eating nothing.

So you don't eat for 2 or 3 days, work from about 8am - midnight more often than not and don't take any breaks. Are you OK doing this?
If not have you looked into your options. I'm presuming they must be quite low paid jobs if you're having to work all those hours to pay your bills, as well as the working conditions being very poor.

More and more places recommend taking a break each hour, getting up, moving around. Otherwise time will be lost to sickness. It is not healthy to sit down for so long.

I take breaks as and when I need them. Thankfully my workplace is mature and high performing and values employees as people. None of these archaic views MN tends to have.

I expect there's a direct link between the companies who have staff that don't take regular break and higher levels of sickness, stress and staff turnover. No one should be sitting for a couple of hours at a time.

As a minimum we are encouraged to have a 15 minute tea break in the morning and afternoon away from our screen and at least 30 mins up to 2 hours for lunch.

My team WFH and when on calls that require listening and not active participating and no presentations to look at are encouraged to move around, I stick noise cancelling headphones on and do the house work whilst listening, gets me moving and the house sorted.

I've heard the rubbish 'taking a break is looking away from the screen' from workplaces that monitor every second of your time - ie. call centres.

It's not a break, it does not rest you, it does not allow you to move your body.

Call centre work is incredibly intense with no natural breaks - the calls just keep coming. You are taking a call whilst focusing on the screen at the same time - there are few natural breaks.

You have to push back against the 'rest your eyes by looking at the ceiling for 10 seconds'

Whilst it is only 'guidance' for 5 minute breaks every hour, it is official guidance from the HSE and workplaces should not be telling employees that looking away from their screen for seconds is an adequate replacement.

I am well aware that every second is monitored and will be questioned but what happens is instead of people fighting back - they go off sick and then they leave.

Somehow these workplaces prefer that to treating their employees like people.

@hagchic and you'll just get sacked, even the NHS doesn't do those breaks in contact centres for emergency dispatchers/handlers
You just end up being labelled the troublemaker one, and even the union can't help you push back as it's not a legal thing

Should add that HSE say it's a recommended break in work so it doesn't have to be an actual break away from work, just a change
So me writing notes on paper for 5 mins is a change, or ringing someone on teams

I've done 17 years in contact centres so very aware on what you can and can't push back on/what you are legally entitled to!

Not really, but needs must, for now anyway

I work 8-4.30 with a 30 minute break. I have a horrible back problem that is made worse by sitting. This week I gave been getting shooting pains down my legs every time I sit. So I am up and down like a yo yo.
My work is very monotones, so you become bored very easily too. I definitely go to make a drink/go to the loo (sit on toilet looking at phone) at least once an hour . I wouldn't be able to walk otherwise as I would seize up.
On my work from home days I don't get the same pain as I don't sit in an office chair

Unfortunately teaching staff don't often get that 15 minutes break because students use it to ask questions. If I'm lucky I might get to go to the toilet.

We take 30 minute lunch break but can leave desk at any time to make a drink, toilet stop etc - smokers are allowed 5 minute break AM and PM
I am always up and down to copier or shredder or just to stretch my legs but it’s only 1/2 minutes at a time

My teachers do, they're out of the room before we are! And usually take 20 minutes instead of the 15 minutes, though we don't mind, 45 minutes of solid concentration drags so 40 minutes is better.

I can’t believe some of these work places?! I wfh and just get up whenever I fancy ( unless in a call of course ) all my work gets done within the timelines but if I need some space I’ll hoover or do some washing or get a drink. No one would even notice if I wasn’t there! I also don’t keep tabs on my team because I trust them to get the work done. I honestly can’t imagine ever going back to the 30 minute fixed lunch break nonsense! I would never message someone to say I was taking a break either - I’d just go!

This job sounds like absolute purgatory - how that can be the whole job?! Yes, you'll need more regular breaks from doing something so incredibly tedious (you'll start making mistakes if you don't) but it's not going to make it bearable! I think most posters aren't thinking of a task quite this monotonous - I've never encountered a desk job, even at a very low level, where it would be this unvaried - and I do think that makes a difference.

I don’t think you are entitled to a 10 min break where you go for a walk it read a book as such,.. but if you go to the toilet every half hour, and get a drink that gets you moving…