Desk dining is now top of the menu

Desk dining is now top of the menu

Desk dining is now top of the menu

Do you take maximum advantage of your lunch hour or do you just have time to grab a sandwich at your desk? Jane Archer reports on increasingly shorter lunch breaks at work

WHAT are you doing for lunch today? If a new survey by research group Datamonitor is to be believed, chances are you will be snatching a sandwich or a salad at your desk. Certainly you will not be taking the full hour’s entitlement.

The survey found that the three-course business lunch is rapidly becoming a thing of the past and being replaced with platters of cold nibbles delivered to the desk. Social lunch breaks are losing out to the culture of “desk dining”, which allows deadline-hampered workers to catch up on the day’s tasks while refuelling for the afternoon.

These days, time-pressed workers do not even have to step outside to buy their food as one catering firm, Sodexho, has launched an initiative in the UK that allows staff to order their lunch over the Internet. The company promises to deliver to the desk within 20 minutes.

The trend concerns worker welfare groups in the travel industry which fear that not allowing staff to take sufficient breaks puts the health of workers at risk.

Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association organiser Sarah Jane Miller said:”The lack of an adequate lunch break is a common trend in the travel trade.

“The problem is that agents get high volumes of custom during the lunch break and business needs generally dictate that staff have to be there to deal with clients.”

Bath Travel Winchester assistant manager Genevieve Foxwell said there is a lot of give and take to fit in lunch breaks.

“If we are short staffed, we might have something quick to eat around lunch time, and then go out when it is quieter,” she said. “I don’t mind that. We are dealing with the public and they usually want to be served in their lunch breaks.”

Foxwell said agents can have a drink beside them at work, but they are not allowed to eat at their desks.

In smaller Lunn Poly shops, where there are just two staff on duty over lunch time, agents can have lunch at their desks, but in larger agencies they are encouraged to take their full one hour’s break.

Lunn Poly Walsall manager Vicky Stilsbury said:”To me, lunch for my staff is more important than the customers.

“Everyone gets the time they are entitled to. It is important to have a proper break or they will not be able to concentrate and will give a five-star service.”

Stilsbury draws up a rota for lunch breaks each day, often based on a split break of 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon, but avoiding staff being out from 12-2pm wherever possible.

A Lunn Poly spokeswoman said if staff do not get their full one-hour break, the time missed is logged, to be taken off another day.

Miller is concerned about the health and safety implications of not taking breaks. “Working over lunch can cause stress and lethargy, and often results in staff not performing to the highest standard,” she warned.

The union’s preferred solution is the use of part-time staff to cover full-time workers over lunch breaks.

But it’s not all bad news, according to Datamonitor’s Sarah Nunny. “Workers often go out on Friday lunchtimes to make up for sacrificing every other day.”

nContact the TSSA on 020-7529 8018 or e-mail enquiries@tssa.org.uk

Food facts

&#42 The average UK consumer spends £1.99 on lunch – just enough for a small snack – whereas the Spanish, with an average £4.32 lunchtime bill, spend the most in Europe and take a break of 90 minutes at midday.

&#42 Germans spend an average £1.85, making theirs the cheapest lunch in Europe.

&#42 The British eat more than two billion commercially produced sandwiches each year.

&#42 Marks and Spencer’s five best-selling sandwiches are: chicken salad; prawn mayonnaise; bacon lettuce and tomato; Count On Us (healthy eating) chicken salad; and ham, cheese and pickle.