Are Lunch Breaks Overrated?


Taking a proper lunch break where you actually get up from your desk and relish your food may seem like a wondrous myth. On the other hand, maybe that half hour or hour is best spent eating at the desk.

Photo by Diego Cervo

Rachael Larimore writes on Slate that eating lunch at her desk and cramming more work into her workday means she has more time for all the other responsibilities in her life:

Everything we might prefer to working is crammed into one- or two-hour slices: an hour to eat and drink, an hour devoted to “caring for others.” If you’re an office worker with a few kids, you first must wake up and endure a mad scramble to get everyone dressed and out the door-that’s an hour or two of non-quality family time. Then there’s the commute. If it’s 30 minutes each way, that’s another hour wasted. And then you work for eight or nine hours. If you take an hour for lunch, that’s just another hour that you’re not spending at home with your spouse and kids or at the gym. It’s another hour that you’re paying the sitter. With lunch, an office drone could leave home at 8 a.m. and not get home until 6:30 p.m. When are you supposed to cook dinner? How are you supposed to get to Little League on time?

Not everyone can choose to take a lunch break or not. Some people have an extra half hour or hour added to their work day regardless. But if you have or had a choice, would you use your midday break as a time to mentally recharge or to get more work done so you can get out the door earlier? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

I’d Rather Eat at My Desk [Slate]


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