Style & ShowbizHealth

Average worker takes less than 30 mins for lunch

HealthBy Sunday World
Average worker takes less than 30 mins for lunch

After staring at a computer all morning it’s both mentally and physically beneficial to step away from your screen and have a break once lunch time arrives. However, according to new research, workers are spending less time outside of the office than ever before; with the average lunch break dropping to just 28 minutes.

More worryingly, the statistics found that just 17 per cent of British employees actually take a full hour to unwind.

Mastercard and Ipsos MORI surveyed over 1,300 British adults aged between 16 and 75, finding that 12 per cent of them hardly ever or, in some cases, never, have a lunch break, while 66 per cent of adults don’t go outside their workplace for food. It was also discovered that three in five workers bring a packed lunch, and 36 per cent noted they never eat out during the week because they don’t have the time.

These findings follow on from health officials urging workers to get up off their seats as much as possible, with the U.K. Department of Health recommending to move every 30 minutes. Excessive sitting has been linked to obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, as well as early death rates.

“Throughout my career I've seen employees hunched over their desks wolfing down a sandwich. It makes workers less productive, hampers creativity and numerous studies have shown it's bad for health, so why do we still do it?” businesswoman Margaret Mountford, who starred in British TV show The Apprentice, sighed.

“Bosses should lead the way by encouraging a culture of lunch breaks – it will boost productivity, creativity and morale as workers feel better and take on the afternoon revitalised. It's time to stamp out the culture of not taking a lunch hour.”

Another study into lunch breaks earlier this year (16) found that those workers who chose to sit on their phones during their downtime were more likely to feel sleepy in the afternoon than those who went out for a walk or took up reading.

It can be hard to take a whole hour when there’s so much going on in your job, but think of it this way; you can’t work properly if you end up glazing over your computer screen, so do yourself and your work quality a favour by taking some time out for lunch!

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