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Anyone for a quick bite?

Let’s start with the numbers. The Steelcase research found that the traditional U.S. lunch hour has shrunk to more of a lunch break—just 31 minutes. Fifty-five percent of workers take a half an hour or less for lunch. Women are much more likely to take shorter lunches than men (61% vs. 48%).

A recent survey earlier this summer for food retailer KFC found that 62.7% of adults consider the 60-minute lunch hour “the biggest myth in office life.” [1]

Kim Sydnor, a senior designer and associate with HOK in Atlanta, GA speaks for many U.S. office workers. “My lunch hour disappeared a long time ago,” she says, adding that she often attends lunchtime training sessions, or feels the need to work through lunch to meet a pressing deadline.

“We’re double-tasking, eating lunch over the keyboard tray and trying to get work done at the same time,” says Richard Bliss, vice president and senior designer at Solomon Cordwell Buenz in Chicago. “You grab fifteen minutes of break time because your schedule is so chaotic, and you’d rather take a short break at lunch so you can get out of the office at a decent time at the of the day.”

Outside of the United States, lunchtime is also a short order. Pollsters in England earlier this year reported that the traditional 60-minute lunch had collapsed to an average of just 19 minutes. [2] In Ireland, lunch is reported to last only a bit longer (35 minutes) than the U.S. average.

Down Under, Australians say they’re just too busy to nosh at noon. One in three skips lunch at least once a week. One in ten rarely or never has it. In a poll conducted by ACNeilsen Omnibus, one in five Australians takes less than 20 minutes for lunch, one-third of lunchers dine for just 20-30 minutes, and only 16% enjoy a comparatively luxurious 45-60 minutes for lunch. [3]

Lunch Rules

What’s killing lunchtime? It’s the usual suspects in the United States, according to the Workplace Survey Index. A changed work environment (35%), increased pressure to perform (22%), and wanting to scoot earlier at the end of the day (22%) are all reasons offered by harried workers. Also, 21% of workers said they use lunchtime for individual work because they now spend more time working in teams. Only 3% admitted they cut lunch short to impress the boss.

“Lunch is a kind of telltale sign about large issues in the workplace. With the global nature of business, a larger pool of competitors, downsizing every industry, a general reluctance to add staff too quickly, employees need to work harder and longer,” says Chris Congdon, corporate marketing manager for Steelcase. “Our professional and personal lives are busier than ever. Something’s got to give, and it looks like it’s lunch.”

Time pressure is global, but the lunch hour comes under fire in different ways in different places.

In Spain, the generations-old tradition of the two-or three-hour lunch and siesta is the target of a new government mandate. As of January, the central government limits employee lunchtime to a single hour. The goals of the new rule are to align the Spanish work schedule with that of the rest of Europe’s, and allow parents to get home earlier at the end of the day. Government officials say they hope this will start a trend in their country.

Back in England, a definite trend is threatening a British cultural tradition: the lunchtime pint of beer. According to law firm Browne Jacobson, 57% of companies now ban drinking during the day. [4] While certain jobs, such as machinery operator and driver, have always had drinking restrictions, the ban on daytime drinking is moving into many other professions. Fear of litigation, say the lawyers, is a major factor.

No time, no beer, no siesta. Can’t the lunch hour just get a break? There are some hopeful signs.

Most U.S. workers (79%) in the U.S. say they don’t feel guilty for taking a full one-hour lunch. Still, many workers opt for fast food stops, take-out orders, or bringing their own a lunch. So what are they doing with the rest of that lunch time?

Almost half of workers (49%) say they work with colleagues. Other popular lunchtime activities include Internet shopping, reading, making phone calls, running errands, exercising—even dating. “It’s Just Lunch,” the dating service based in San Diego, started in business just fifteen years ago. Today they have over 90 locations worldwide.

If you’re younger, you tend to spend more time socializing over your pita wrap; 75% of those aged 18-24 say that’s their style. Those in the 35-44 age group are more likely (43%) to squeeze in some errands between bites.

Lunch Hour Alternatives

Are we losing something here besides time to eat? Left off of the list of ways people now use lunch time are activities that flourish during a lunch hour: building collegial relationships, mentoring others, and simply using lunch as a means to get work done in a more casual, more comfortable atmosphere. These are important activities that help people work together effectively. If they aren’t happening at lunch, how can we make sure they happen somewhere, somehow?

Look to Your Workspace for Help

“We’re abandoning the large lunch room,” says John Hopkins, vice president and senior designer at HOK, Chicago. “It just sits empty. People feel uncomfortable going in there.”

“If the client is pushing for a big lunch room, we try to make it a multifunctional space, with furniture for conferences and meetings. We put the kitchen, prep areas, and vending machines outside the room, so that equipment is accessible, but doesn’t define the space.”

“The lunch room is only used for eating from about 11 to 1,” notes Bliss, “so we’ve made these spaces work for IT and training, too. We use multiple types of comfortable seating, a large flat screen, and the vending machines are nearby. You can spend more money on the lunch room when it has more than one purpose.”

Workspace Oasis

Many companies are ditching the lunch room entirely in favor of smaller, collaborative spaces.

“Instead of a big lunch room,” says Hopkins, “it’s more useful to provide small break rooms or areas where people can go, have a quick lunch, get away from their desk. These are also great opportunities for bumping into colleagues and interacting with others. So we want them to be aesthetically pleasing, with nice light and paint, by a window…People are drawn to these spaces.”

“We sometimes call these ‘oases’ instead of ‘break rooms,’” says Sydnor. “We usually have some kind of seating for collaboration. They can be designed in an open plan, too. We use smaller, simple tables, side chairs, and sometimes a booth style of seating.”

The interaction that happens in these spaces is a critically important business activity: informal collaboration between two people, which research shows is the source of most innovation at work. (See “The Next Evolution of the Personal Workspace,” in the June 2005 360 ezine.)

Hopkins has used these spaces to help organizations subtly force collaboration amongst departments that need to work together, but, for various reasons, don’t interact. “We’ve put break rooms right in the middle between two departments, with a door on each side, so the two groups are forced to use the same space. It helps them to start communicating, to get to know each other.”

Ultimately, we all need to make time for sharing information, bouncing ideas off others, nurturing relationships with the people we need to get things done. It used to happen more often during the lunch hour. Now it must occur in the workplace.

And if you’d still like to find more time for lunch out of the office, maybe lunchclock.com can help. It’s a JavaScript clock for your computer monitor. It “extends” your lunch break by however many minutes you’d like. Want to tack on an extra 15 minutes to your half-hour lunch? No problem. Lunchclock speeds up before and after lunch, and slows down during lunch. So the clock on your computer says you were only gone 30 minutes. If only beating the lunch crowd were that easy!

Check please...

SIDEBAR

What’s For Lunch?

Lunch still plays an important role in business. But multitasking, just-struggling-to-keep-their-heads-above-water workers often have trouble justifying a lunch outside the office.

Still, if you’re looking for reasons to fit in an outside bite, lunch can help you:

1. Develop business relationships

Network, meet-and-greet and — who knows? — maybe strike a deal.

2. Get to know your coworkers and clients

How often have you said, “We ought to go to lunch”?

3. Get to know your employees

Lunch can help strengthen any relationship.

4. Generate some innovative thinking

“Scheduled brainstorming” is an oxymoron. An informal lunch helps people relax and open up.

5. Rest your unconscious

Picking up the dry cleaning isn’t always relaxing because your brain gets no break. “Lunch out” can mean “veg out.”

6. Mentor someone

With everyone working harder and longer, lunch may be the best way to transfer wisdom from old hands to younger workers.

7. Get healthy

Nutritionists say making lunch part of a consistent meal plan helps control weight, boosts energy and concentration levels, and promotes general wellness. Or, you can just order the ribs platter.

8. Fuel your afternoon

Food gurus say a high-fiber, low-fat lunch provides the longest-lasting energy to help you avoid an afternoon slump.

9. Refresh and recharge

Everyone needs a break. Midday is the perfect time.

10. Give your coworkers a break

We all need some space once in a while.