Ah, lunch. Used to be an hour, maybe even a few minutes more, time to eat, get in a workout perhaps, dash in for a bit of shopping.
Of course, those days are long gone. An OfficeTeam survey gives us an idea of just how far gone:
Nearly half of workers interviewed said their typical lunch break lasts 30 minutes or less.
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Interestingly, more than four in 10 (42 percent) reported that, aside from eating, they spend this time socializing with colleagues, while 29 percent admitted they work during lunch breaks – a figure that intuition tells us might actually be much higher.
OfficeTeam specializes in the placement of administrative professionals. Its survey was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on telephone interviews with more than 400 U.S. workers 18 years of age or older and employed in office environments.
Workers were asked, "What is the average length of your typical lunch break?"
Thirty-eight percent said 60 minutes or more, while 9 percent said less than 10 minutes or no break at all. Thirty-nine percent said 30 minutes or less.
Workers also were asked about else they did during their lunchtime.
Aside from socializing, 27 percent surfed the web, 25 percent caught up on personal calls or emails, 25 percent ran errands and 18 percent exercised in some form.
Just 1 percent said they do nothing but eat.
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