Do you actually take your lunch break?

[guild]

I'm curious if people actually take their lunch break. Do you take yours? Is it paid or unpaid? And what sector do you work in?

Me: I don't. It's paid. I work in education. Tend to get so caught up I just sort of miss it and eat at desk.

Ah that's sweet of you thanks 😊

Our manager recently shortened our working week by one hour (to suit his own social life). He asked where I was planning to make up the extra hour by starting earlier. I told him I’d shorten my one hour lunch by 12 minutes x 5 days. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve taken a full lunch break. 🤦‍♀️

I rarely take my lunch and just work through. It is unpaid but it's unusual in my team to take a break and we often work over our 'regular' hours... however our boss is really flexible so when I go and get my hair done for 2.5hrs every six weeks he doesn't bat an eyelid so it's swings and roundabouts

TA here and lunch breaks are a joke! 20/25 minutes to wolf down my lunch and then do a duty of some kind.

I've had enough.

Yes I do. I would go mad without one!

My old job was a carer and no breaks at all even in a 12 hour shift. New job in retail and unpaid breaks but will take them

Most of the time but sometimes if I get caught up in something I only get 15 or so minutes instead of half an hour. We have strict time slots for ours too (NHS) so would be unable to deviate from my slot as they would impact on my colleague who had been allocated the next slot.

I sit down all day and hardly move so try and get away from my desk for held an hour walk down the long corridor to the staff room, eat and then have a wee bad walk back. Not much time for anything else.

Unpaid.

Excuse typos

Unpaid, public sector, rarely. The people I work with always take 30 mins, they could take an hour but of course they’d have to stay later.

Unpaid. Education manager and no I never take it. Mainly eat at desk whilst multitasking except on days when meetings etc mean no opportunity to eat at all.

Public Sector, unpaid and I have not taken a lunch break in 4 years. Usually just grab a sandwich and eat at my desk whilst in yet another meeting.

30 mins, unpaid, always take it.

Also in education. I take a prepared lunch that doesn’t need heating, and a flask. I eat quickly and without chatting. That’s the only way I get my lunch. It’s supposed to be half an hour, but I rarely get more than 20 minutes to shovel it down.

Clinic based nurse, 30 minutes unpaid. I usually get some time between patients but I tend to eat at my desk while doing some admin. Noones making me do that its just in front of screen its just tempting to get caught up doing bits and pieces. We have no break room just the office or the clinic room. I work in a city centre So I could go off
for a walk in town but id have to get changed out of uniform and back again so its more effort then its worth for 30 minutes. I wouldn’t say I take a proper break, no. My manager wants to change this culture but I cant see that happening while we have no designated break room

I always take it .
I get one 30 minute unpaid break during my 8 hour shift.
I honestly don't care how busy it is or whatever else is happening.
I arrive dot on time, take my break and leave on time.
I do not work for free ... ever!

@grayhairdontcare that's an excellent work ethic to adopt. I am definitely going to implement that after half term. Working for free? No one should do that.

@Sortmylifeout52 I never use to but a few years of " performance punishment ".
The more I did, the more it was just expected soon sorted my thinking out

@grayhairdontcare yes, it's so easy to slip into that culture.

I'm a TA and am nearly always at least 10/15 minutes early each day. God knows why! I do make a sharp exit at the end of the day though.

Next week, it's arrive in the dot.
Leave on the dot.

I guess it depends if it works for you and if your employer is willing to be flexible and give back time when you need it great but if not then a change of mindset is needed. Why are so many of us working for free.

Can I ask...

All of you who never take your breaks, are you literally not eating all day?

If I wasn't getting my lunch, I would be useless from hunger

Never lately.

NHS nurse.

So short staffed there is often no chance to take break, for example on my last shift I was don't a withdrawal of care, of course in them circumstances I can't waltz off for lunch and leave the poor grieving parents with their dying baby.

Shift before there was a very sick baby who required high level of intensive care. So required 2 nurses but again short staffed

Yes I do. We get paid fuck all for doing a skilled and dangerous role. Damn right I take my lunch.

Depending on length of shift I get 30 minutes unpaid break. Rarely able to take it in full as due to the way the shop (food retail) is run im often called back to the till to help. So tend to be running back to the shop floor with a mouth full of food!

I always take a 1 hour unpaid lunch break.

1 hour unpaid lunch. I always take it, even if it ends up being mid-afternoon. My time is not worth nothing. If it were paid I’d be happy to worth through it.