Sixty-percent of workers miss out on their full lunch break

Employee Benefit News

Image via WikipediaIs lunch time a sort of "witching hour" to workplace wellness? Employers already have a hard time ensuring workers have access to healthy lunchtime meals and snacks. Now, a new poll shows many workers fail to take a full lunch break.

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"Taking a lunch break is very important to keep healthy and refreshed," says Jeffrey Quinn, senior director, Monster Intelligence. "Our bodies and brains need fuel to operate and many workers actually find they are more productive after some time spent away from their desk. If people feel they are too busy, they should take stock of their workload and try to plan it into their day," he adds.
Monster, the job matching Web site, recently conducted a poll that showed 60% of workers do not take their full lunch break. Of those surveyed, 7% admitted they do not take a lunch break at all.
The online poll asked participants: “Do you take a lunch break while at work?” Here is a breakdown of the responses:

• Yes, I always take my full lunch break – 40%
• Sometimes, only if I’m not too busy – 32%
• No, I always eat at my desk so I can get more work done – 21%
• No, I don’t eat lunch - 7%

Image via WikipediaWhen examining the numbers through an international lens, Monster found workers in the United States were least likely to take their full lunch break, compared to workers in other countries.

For example, Europeans were more likely to take their full lunch break (49%), with 58% of French workers reporting they use the entire time and 48% of Italian workers admitting the same. Forty-eight percent of Indian workers also said they take advantage of the full time, while 45% of Asian workers said the same, according to the survey.
No surprise here, but workers brought their lunches back to the office, with nearly 30% of U.S. workers reporting they eat lunch at their decks, followed by 26% of Canadians and Belgium workers doing the same.
Yet only 8% workers in Mexico and 9% in Italy said they eat lunch at their desks, according to the survey, which was conducted in June 2010 and involved 17,967 participants.

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