The vanishing lunch break

May 29, 2024 by
 |  4 Comments  |  Leave Comment

This is a post that will likely only resonate with our US Members as it discusses a lament that is less common in many other countries: our workers’ diminished lunch breaks. According to Megan Elias, associate professor at Boston University and author of Lunch: A History (The Meals Series), “Lunch has never been just a meal; the meal most often eaten in public, lunch has a long tradition of establishing social status and cementing alliances. From the ploughman’s lunch in the field to the power lunch at the Four Seasons, the particulars of lunch decisions—where, with whom, and what we eat—often mark our place in the world. “

Today’s lunch scene has shifted. You may have heard the phrase “sad desk lunch”, which came about in the 2010s as people showed the meager meals they were eating at their desk because they didn’t want to (or couldn’t) take the time to eat a proper lunch. Now it seems that people are not only spending less time on lunch, they are going out less frequently and spending less money, too.

A recent NBC news story said that spending on lunch was down 3.3 percent compared to 2019, with some cities seeing steeper declines. It seems that people are choosing to spend their money on weekend meals and other activities rather than going out to lunch. While it may make economic sense, some people feel that workers are losing out on valuable social interactions and are depriving themselves of important “me” time. Elias says that one of the benefits of lunch is that it is “unsupervised, and you get to choose what to eat or where to go, so it’s this return to yourself. Lunch really breaks the control the employer has over an employee for a little while.”

Judging from the lines at food trucks in downtown Minneapolis on an ordinary weekday, it isn’t yet time to pronounce lunch dead, but there are fewer eateries in the skyway system compared to pre-Covid times. However, new places are slowly coming to life in spaces vacated during the pandemic. I think the desire to get away from the office and share a lunch with friends remains strong, so this recent downturn may only be a response to inflation and not a long-term trend. How is the lunch scene where you live?

Category: Antipasto

Post a comment

4 Comments

  • GenieB  on  May 31, 2024

    I’m retired, so this doesn’t really apply to me. However, I live in an area which is a mix of high-rise apartment buildings and office buildings. Since the pandemic, many restaurants in this area (and downtown, which is the next neighborhood over) have closed or ceased to offer lunch service. This is largely driven by the trend, started during the pandemic, of working from home. Fewer people in the offices equals fewer people at restaurants at lunchtime.

  • LeilaD  on  May 31, 2024

    I work from home, so my hour is a time to go to the park and take a walk away from my desk- meaning I’m usually reheating leftovers and taking it back to my desk so that I can clock back in on time. Frankly, I need that (slightly less-than) hour of green.

  • ldyndiuk  on  June 14, 2024

    Most of my coworkers bring their own lunches, but that doesn’t mean they’re sad! I prep my lunches on the weekend so that I can spend half of my lunch hour taking a walk outside and still have time to eat. Maybe people are still taking lunch breaks, but have just shifted to making their own lunches.

  • ozfoodie  on  June 14, 2024

    I’m an introvert, and socialising at lunch time during the week is frankly the last thing I want. Lovely though they are, my colleagues are not the people I most want to spend my deliberately limited social time with. To me, lunching with others is actually depriving myself of ‘me’ time. I really need that time alone in my break. When I’m in the office I like to bring a nutritious lunch from home and take a relatively quick break of half an hour. Homemade food leaves me feeling much better throughout the afternoon than most bought food does, and I get home earlier at the end of the day. Hubby and I usually go out for nice lunches on the weekend. None of this is a deprivation! It’s making conscious choices to live my life in the way that makes me happiest. 🙂

Seen anything interesting? Let us know & we'll share it!

Categories

Archives