Working lunches are becoming the norm, with employees depriving themselves of a total 7.3 million hours of downtime by cutting back on breaks.
Working lunches are becoming the norm, with employees depriving themselves of a total 7.3 million hours of downtime by cutting back on breaks.
According to research from Lyons Coffee, 50 per cent of workers are taking less than half an hour on average for lunch, with 78 per cent saying that their lunch breaks are the shortest they have ever been.
Murray Leslie, managing director at Lyons Coffee, says: ‘Our consumer research into office habits shows that people are reluctant to give themselves valuable downtime during the working day. Breaks are key to feel refreshed and invigorated to approaching tasks and we recommend that employers encourage regular ones.’
Volume of work was the most cited reason for not taking a lunch break (42 per cent), followed by a fear of standing out as other colleagues don’t take long breaks
Of the 1,000 respondents, 95 per cent said they were more able to tackle work with a fresh perspective and new energy following a break.
According to a study by online takeaway site Just-Eat.co.uk, worried workers are on average putting in an extra four hours of overtime per week, totalling £1.5 billion in unpaid labour.
