<p>This is a big organization. The manager who actually supervises my work is a very reasonable person. The other manager whom I would have to ask for a schedule adjustment seems reasonable, but I don’t know her very well. Neither of them is the person who would choose which people to lay off if our group is required to lay people off. That person knows me only by name. I don’t want the first piece of information she might connect with my name to be “that woman who asked for a longer lunch break,” whether or not the longer lunch break was approved.</p>
<p>I do wonder, however, if the OP suffers from a general lack of confidence that may or may not accurately reflect her work skills or the work environment given that she came back basically apologizing for even considering asking for an extra 15 minutes (as opposed to deciding after consideration it was better not to ask rather than thinking she was lame and ridiculous to even consider asking)</p>
<p>All right, how about this approach - talk to your co-workers and ask if others would be interested in asking for a slightly longer or more flexible hours for lunch time now that the cafeteria is further away. I just can’t imagine that asking, not demanding, not threatening is going to be a problem. I’d frame it as something like “I wondered now that the cafeteria is no longer in the same building you’d given any consideration to allowing a slightly longer break?” You may not be the only one who has trouble getting there quickly.</p>