I wonder if employers will be more receptive to regular breaks for knowledge workers who are mostly sedentary. One befits of working from home before being mandated back to the office was being able to go on a walk during lunch and less-critical meetings.
My understanding is, unless the employer is paying you during lunch, they can’t mandate what you
do. The only problems are 1) it’s not good socially if everyone else is eating lunch and you’re doing something else, and 2) your employer may not give or allow a long break during work hours, but I don’t how common that is (or how it would be justified, considering you’re not working for less hours).
I've never seen an office culture that minded people taking a walk (unless the team was in war room or something). A lot of workers go out to buy lunch anyway.
For hourly production workers that have to clock in/out and may only get a fixed 30 lunch break then it is more difficult.
This completely changed due to WFH and online interviews. I can take a little longer lunch break, do the interview from my home office, then continue with my current job.
The only thing is lost is my midday walk and I have to eat something quick(eg.: sandwich) instead a proper meal.
That's a good idea. Travel time may be an issue (I'm looking to network with developers outside my company). Also I feel that the type of people who won't take a detour on the way home from work will also eat lunch at their desk so that they can leave a few minutes sooner.
One of the best decisions I ever made at my prior job. I'd take a solid hour for lunch outside, typically with colleagues. Additionally, 2 colleagues and I took a 45 min walk at 330pm everyday. I'd argue that I was significantly more productive by doing this and much much happier.
I used to take hour long lunch breaks, which I'd spend about 35mins walking to get food and finding a nice spot to sit outside, most days I done this I would come back into the office refreshed and often fix the issue I was working on shortly after coming back. But the hour-long break was always founded upon, which is why I ended up leaving. (it was also the only break I took each day, but the culture in the team I was in was to take no more than 30mins break)
Are we supposed feel obligated to return to the office just to supper lunch business? There’s no reason for knowledge workers to be mandated to be in an office X days a week.
Like others have stated, I use going to the kitchen as a stretch for my muscles. I find that getting up away from the desk and walking around helps break up the working day. Without these breaks I know that my productivity would drop, especially in the afternoons.
The same goes for working through lunch. I often find myself doing this in order to complete all the work I have on my plate. What I am trying to force myself to do is actually get out of the office and at the very least go for a walk outside. More often than not I am a lot more productive in the afternoons when I take a decent break for lunch. Working straight through lunch is a bad habit to get into.
Coming from Asia, especially tropical countries, walking is not very common during lunch time as you can get sweaty and disgusting coming back to work.
After living in AU I'm surprised by how many of my co-workers do walking as part of their lunch break. Me on the other hand just stay at my computer, code, when I'm stuck I stop and think.. Maybe I should start walking rather than being a lazy ass
It's funny, I almost never used to eat lunch when I worked in an office. I'd go have lunch outside of the office with coworkers. Now that I work remotely from home I eat at my desk close to 100% of the time. I rarely try to do actual work while eating, opting instead to stay hands free and watch a pycon talk or part of a documentary or something, but the article definitely resonates with me.. Most of my lunches are interrupted by questions in team chat and I end up feeling rushed back to work and not like I've had an effective break. I think I'm gonna try eating out today :)
Have they also considered the fact that I’m literally hopping from one meeting to the next with zero minutes of downtime? I mean when I was in the office we at least had to walk to a new room, now I’m always a few minutes late to the next meeting and literally just signed out of the previous one.
I used to also take a lunch break, now I eat at my desk during meetings.
When I worked last the lunchtime walk was a daily ritual - through heathland next to the site. When I became a line manager to my peers, it was also where we had the unofficial chats - where I was ‘me’ rather than corporate. That walk is the thing I miss most about working, as a retiree
I don't walk at lunch but working from home allows me to get a quick kettlebell workout in every day at lunch. 30 minutes of kettlebell work, a shower, and then back in the saddle by 1pm. My personal findings reflect what the article says: I'm in a better mood, more efficient, and generally just better at my job after my lunchtime workout.
It includes lunch break at 12pm-1pm. I can confidently tell that most of my former coworkers (since RTO mandate) have been taking it slow/easy more so than they used to be.
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