Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very true. My Boomer or older GenX coworkers are psycho about their lunch hours. They won’t take phone calls, answer chats and guard it as sacred. They won’t even move their lunch break around for important meetings with clients.

Unless your workplace will let you leave early if you don't take lunch, that's smart.

I'm a Millennial and I've never worked a job that fit in 40 hours (e.g., BigLaw). I work through lunch because those are minutes I could sleep or see my kids.

This.

I struggle with staying motivated
at work when I know my brain is fried, and I could be doing other things instead of sitting there trying to squeeze a few more productive minutes out of my work day, while everything else waits. Getting outside, going to the gym, running an errand or two, helps reset my brain and then I can get more work done later. Takes more than a lame 30 minute lunch break.

My office recently approved a 1 hour PAID wellness break in addition to a 30 min lunch break, and a mid day flex period that can be used adjacently. It’s fantastic!

The benefits of flexibility like that are scientifically proven, but many employers hate it for some reason. It makes no sense because they are getting better work product. I think most orgs are TERRIBLE at tracking results, and can only measure employee contribution by hours spent in the office. It’s so out of touch.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very true. My Boomer or older GenX coworkers are psycho about their lunch hours. They won’t take phone calls, answer chats and guard it as sacred. They won’t even move their lunch break around for important meetings with clients.

Unless your workplace will let you leave early if you don't take lunch, that's smart.

I'm a Millennial and I've never worked a job that fit in 40 hours (e.g., BigLaw). I work through lunch because those are minutes I could sleep or see my kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Xennial here, and I slightly look down on people who take daily full one-hour lunch breaks. They strike me as lazy.

I look down on anyone who is so precious as to think they belong to a “microgeneration.” Xennial isn’t a thing, sweetheart.

Np - disagree and don’t call people ‘sweetheart’ - it’s lame.

Lots of us who are borderline gen x and millennial are a lot more like millennials in our thinking and culture. I identify with gen x in no way and if born 2 y later would be millennial. Lots of us around

I am borderline gen x and millennial and have not taken a lunch break in 20y. I mean - I use my day to get work done. This not new behavior

I am an elder millenial who supervises several Gen Z employees and I had to specifically tell them they were required to take lunch breaks. They don't want to. They eat sandwiches at their desk and want to leave earlier. Our HR team checks and asks why people are working through lunch so I explained it was neccessary and they were all grumbly. I personally love my lunch break. I go out for a walk and buy something delicious or run an errand, sometimes even work out. I definitely block the time on my calendar so I dont get random meetings.

Anonymous wrote:Xennial here, and I slightly look down on people who take daily full one-hour lunch breaks. They strike me as lazy.

I look down on anyone who is so precious as to think they belong to a “microgeneration.” Xennial isn’t a thing, sweetheart.

Anonymous wrote:I take lunch breaks, and I also leave early, and I also arrive late.

-Millennial

This is the way. 🙌🏼

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I split my day into two parts with a 2-3 hour stretch of time between 1-4 that I often use for personal stuff. Then I get back to work for a couple of hours. I start early, like 6/7.

A 9-5 workday is archaic and I find less productive than a day set up like mine. Anyone remember that awful 3PM slump from the before times when we all sat in our offices for exactly 8.5 hours every day? With a long break I get two “peaks” of productivity in my day.

+1 to all this.
I also split mine into two productive arcs.
Yes, I remember that 3PM slump --it was so terrible I had fantasies about sleeping under my desk a la George Costanza. And you really are just done at that point, and you leave on the dot and no more productive peaks. It was a terrible way to exist.

I actually DID sleep under my desk once, I was so sleep deprived as a new mom, it was torture to sit there when all I needed was like 1 hour of sleep and some daylight.

Anonymous wrote:I split my day into two parts with a 2-3 hour stretch of time between 1-4 that I often use for personal stuff. Then I get back to work for a couple of hours. I start early, like 6/7.

A 9-5 workday is archaic and I find less productive than a day set up like mine. Anyone remember that awful 3PM slump from the before times when we all sat in our offices for exactly 8.5 hours every day? With a long break I get two “peaks” of productivity in my day.

+1 to all this.
I also split mine into two productive arcs.
Yes, I remember that 3PM slump --it was so terrible I had fantasies about sleeping under my desk a la George Costanza. And you really are just done at that point, and you leave on the dot and no more productive peaks. It was a terrible way to exist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I skip lunch or take a 60 minute lunch I leave same time. If you are not in the clock lunch is not only lunch but when I go dry cleaner, eye doctors, fill a prescription, get oil change. I try to run errands to free up weekend

This can't happen if you work in somewhere like Suitland or other places where the gov't likes to locate its facilities.

Yup. The mandatory 30 minute unpaid lunch is very pointless when you can't go anywhere.

Pre-covid you could find a group to eat with in the same place every day but that culture definitely went away with telework. Part of it's people not being in the office, but part of it's also people not leaving the space in the schedule we did pre-covid. When everyone was commuting we didn't schedule meetings at 8 am, 12-12:30, or 4:30 PM because there was an understanding that some people were still commuting until 9 or after 4:30, and that people needed a break to eat. That's gone now, all hours are fair game, things have sped up.

Post COVID we all have about 13% more meetings which in an 8 hour day means lunch is what is lost.

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/you-re-right-you-are-working-longer-and-attending-more-meetings

Also people come in late, leave early so hard to align lunch.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I skip lunch or take a 60 minute lunch I leave same time. If you are not in the clock lunch is not only lunch but when I go dry cleaner, eye doctors, fill a prescription, get oil change. I try to run errands to free up weekend

This can't happen if you work in somewhere like Suitland or other places where the gov't likes to locate its facilities.

Yup. The mandatory 30 minute unpaid lunch is very pointless when you can't go anywhere.

Pre-covid you could find a group to eat with in the same place every day but that culture definitely went away with telework. Part of it's people not being in the office, but part of it's also people not leaving the space in the schedule we did pre-covid. When everyone was commuting we didn't schedule meetings at 8 am, 12-12:30, or 4:30 PM because there was an understanding that some people were still commuting until 9 or after 4:30, and that people needed a break to eat. That's gone now, all hours are fair game, things have sped up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very true. My Boomer or older GenX coworkers are psycho about their lunch hours. They won’t take phone calls, answer chats and guard it as sacred. They won’t even move their lunch break around for important meetings with clients.

Unless your workplace will let you leave early if you don't take lunch, that's smart.

Pp here. They all have different lunch times. How is a coworker supposed to know? Some like 11:30, 12, or even 2pm. I feel like anytime I message people they’re on lunch.

Heh, yes. Some may be scamming you. We had a secretary who would take lunch at 11:30 and slip in a second lunch at 2.

DP. What is a secretary? Millenials don’t have secretaries.