Why We Neglect Lunch Breaks

Take Back the Lunch Break: Improve workplace engagement and satisfaction

According to Gallup, only one in three employees are engaged at work. Because engagement impacts productivity, happiness and job satisfaction, it’s time employees and employers across North America stepped up to the plate – the lunch plate that is.

North American workers value their lunch breaks and feel more engaged and productive when they make the time to take a lunch break every day. At a time when companies are trying to find every little way to maximize the efficiency and productivity of their employees, the workplace norm around lunch breaks needs to be shifted from something that you are only able to do when you have the time, to something that you would be remiss to skip. This change begins at the managerial or even institutional level by actively encouraging lunch breaks rather than assuming employees will work them into their own schedules.

1. North American workers who take a lunch break every day score higher on a wide range of engagement metrics, including job satisfaction, likelihood to continue working at the same company, and likelihood to recommend their employer to others.
2. North American workers value their lunch breaks – both employees and their bosses.
3. The majority of North American workers take lunch breaks regularly but would like to take them more frequently and for longer amounts of time – a trend that is even more pronounced among Americans than Canadians.
4. Despite valuing their lunch breaks and having a desire to take them more frequently/often, taking adequate lunch breaks is still not a top priority for North American workers.
5. Bosses in North America claim that they encourage their employees to take a lunch break every day, but their employees are less likely to agree.
6. Despite claiming that lunch breaks are important and encouraged among their employees, some bosses look down upon employees who take regular lunch breaks when evaluating their job performance.
7. Personal workload is a much greater influence on whether or not employees take a lunch break than external pressures like their boss or company policy.
8. Encouraging lunch breaks at the institutional level (i.e. common eating areas, mandatory lunch breaks, etc.) alleviates some of the employee-boss tension surrounding taking lunch breaks.

You can read more here.