<p>Marian - that is weird. I only give 30 minutes for lunch, but when I surveyed the employees they all preferred 30 minutes and getting out everyday at 4:30 vs an hour and leaving at 5. We’re in the sticks so there really isn’t anything around anyway, but someone will go out and pick up for everyone a couple of times a week. I personally find that too fattening, but to each their own. And they certainly aren’t tied down to their chairs, I tell them to take a break in the morning and afternoon for 10 - 15 min as well. I even have a couch upstairs in my office that I hardly use and I’ve told any of them, if they have a day when they’re really fried or tired - go take a quick nap! </p>
<p>I supply coffee, tea, bottled water, flavored water, iced tea, I occasionally stock the freezer with frozen pizzas and snacks and foods. </p>
<p>One thing that has always guided how I manage is what I wanted in a job when I worked elsewhere. And getting along with coworkers is huge. I like walking in and hearing them laughing and chatting and I like them feeling comfortable going to each other for help and assistance and support. The happier they are, the more productive they are and the more likely they are to stay long term.</p>
<p>I find it odd that a manager could require you to not eat at your desk (unless it was a reason such as looks bad to other customers, is a trash problem - that kind of thing) or that they can discourage you from socializing with co-workers!</p>
<p>Another slant for me In Favor of bringing lunch- if I look around my office, those that go out often are a good bit overweight as opposed to those that don’t. No true of everyone of course, but a clear truth in our office.</p>
<p>I do work in a hospital setting that has recently improved the cafeteria choices, but still very much limit my trips there to maybe once or twice a month.</p>
<p>I used to go out every day and got soup and a sandwich and lost 20 pounds in that time period, but I was spending a LOT of money. WAY TOO MUCH money. Now I only go out once or twice a month, if that.</p>
<p>I bring breakfast, lunch, and some snacks to work-- not unusual for my office. I eat oatmeal for breakfast and eat a banana a few hours later in between breakfast and lunch. For lunch I eat a BIG salad-- lots of greens and spinach, and I throw in a few croutons and don’t feel bad about it because I never eat salad dressing. I’ll often have a chicken sandwich with my salad… mine is usually just boars head chicken, maybe some lettuce, nothing extravagant… if you wait to add wetter toppings until you’re about to eat it your sandwich may keep better, because my sandwiches are always fine but theres no wet condiments. If I don’t have chicken I’ll have soup. Then a few hours after lunch I eat an apple and maybe some almonds or something and then I am good until dinner. :)</p>
<p>ETA: We are also not allowed to eat at our desks, because our CEO thinks it’s unprofessional-- we don’t work with the public but that isn’t a consideration for anything in our office, we also still don’t do business casual and don’t have casual friday. If he’s not looking, we do it anyway. It IS company policy that we HAVE to take our hour break, but many people don’t. I rarely do anymore. I started pretending I had to work through lunch because whenever I didn’t my friends would insist on eating with me, and while I like them in small doses, they spend their whole lunch hours complaining and it was negatively affecting my attitude. I was coming back from lunch extremely cranky and felt down for the rest of the day.</p>
<p>Discouraging employees from eating together? How sad for you, and a sad comment on the society. And how IS the turnover rate? </p>
<p>I do find the trend towards less communal ways of working to be interesting. As hospital staff, we used to sit in one big room and do our paperwork, bonding in the process. I’m still close to some of those folks from that time in my life. These days, on a recently designed hospital floor, we have separate computer alcoves for the most part, so are essentially not physically close to coworkers, though can reach them by a vocal device. I know my coworkers less intimately, and miss the social connection at work. </p>
<p>Emahee, don’t blame you for avoiding the negativity! </p>
<p>eyemamom, I bet your employees appreciate you!</p>
<p>Marian - oh ho! I feel like I used to work for your employer (“Management very strongly discouraged employees from having lunch together. They didn’t want us to talk to each other.”) - when I left there 16 years ago, I actually said, “and by the way…your paranoia about us talking about you while we’re at lunch…we don’t care enough about you to do that.”</p>
<p>I was bitter too.</p>
<p>I work in midtown NYC. At least 1, if not 2, days/week I score meeting leftovers in the kitchen, as I tend to eat lunch after 1pm. </p>
<p>If that’s not an option, I head a few blocks south to a grocery store and get either their stuffed baked potato for $2.99 or pick up some sliced turkey & cheese and make a sandwich back at the office with gluten-free bread I keep in the freezer. My other standard is the salad bar place which makes a tossed salad w 1 meat, 1 cheese & 4 other toppings for $6.</p>
<p>I take my lunch every day as does DH. I eat a lot of salads. If not salad, I have a Kashi granola bar. I also usually throw in some combination of carrots/hummus, fat free yogurt, nuts, a piece of fruit. If I have a sandwich it’s usually organic/low sodium peanut butter. If I have leftovers from dinner, I reheat them for lunch the next day</p>
<p>I don’t really like the food that is provided at my work place. It’s just awful. I usually pack a peanut butter sandwich, lots of fresh fruits and nuts. If I have time to go out, I do. Otherwise I have enough to keep my blood sugar steady.</p>
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<p>I’ve noticed that too.</p>
<p>Many that eat at their desks workout during lunch or other times so their normal lunch/social time is used up by working out in the gym.</p>
<p>I am a contractor, and my current employer has a rule that we should eat in the cafeteria. Mostly I think it is about food that smells a lot, although it could be a culture thing. But I have noticed that many employees ignore the rule, so after a few months I started eating at my desk if I have a lot of work to do and my lunch is tidy/not odiferous. As a contractor and single parent who only gets paid for the hours I work, I sort of resent employers telling me that I HAVE to go to the cafeteria and take time away from my work at lunchtime. I get along fine with my co-workers, but do not need to spend unpaid time sitting with them at lunch for that to be the case.</p>
<p>One of my coworkers, who has been adamantly trying to lose weight the whole year I’ve known her, goes to the gym for an hour EVERY DAY and then comes back to the office with mcdonalds. I don’t think she’s lost a pound and I so wish she’d do whatever she needs to do to get the success she wants, she busts her behind at the gym every day for nothing.</p>
<p>When I started bringing salads every day, I got teased a LOT for it for weeks before people got used to it and backed off. I’ve been working on losing weight ever since around the time I started this job and I’ve noticed that my office seems to be very, very strange about that issue.</p>
<p>I prefer to eat at my desk, door closed, surfing the web. I dont prefer eating with co workers if all they talk about is work. Lunch is my break. I gather my thoughts and I rest a moment from the stress. I would prefer to bring my lunch because eating out gets expensive. I do okay with breakfast most days but lunch not so much with planning ahead.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for posting – I’ve gotten a lot of great ideas for healthy things I could bring from home, but I find myself wondering: will I still need the break of “going out to pick up some lunch”? Is that why I prefer standing in line and paying $10+ for something that isn’t terrific – it’s because it’s a universally sanctioned break from work? </p>
<p>I think I’ll try bringing lunch, but then going out for a break around lunch time, just to walk around the block, buy a water, look around and breathe.</p>
<p>I have one work colleague who doesn’t even have lunch anymore – she does the $1.99 breakfast specials (some kind of eggy thing and a coffee) around 10:00 and then all she needs is a piece of fruit later in the day. </p>
<p>I have another friend who works at a company with a cafeteria which is highly subsidized, so she can get a ton of food for $4. Problem is, she isn’t really on break – everyone uses this option, so her boss, her co-workers, are there and can drop by and talk business while she’s eating. I think I’d run to the nearest overpriced deli…</p>
<p>I used to work at a place where lunch hour was from 2-4pm, and end of day was 7pm. As a manager, I told them if they would cut the lunch hour to 1 hour then they could go home at 6. There weren’t that many takers. I did figure out what people were doing for 2 hours.</p>
<p>Yogurt, a piece of fruit, and something to drink.</p>
<p>I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one that eats meals at my desk. </p>
<p>I can’t stomach food before 8am or so, which means that I bring something to eat for breakfast. Usually banana and a homemade muffin, and some yogurt. In the winter it is oatmeal and a banana.</p>
<p>Lunch is a green salad in the summer with maybe some rice cakes. In the winter, it is bulgur or quinoa with some sauteed vegies, maybe some tofu. </p>
<p>And a small dose of dark chocolate every day!</p>
<p>Classof2015, I also like going to the cafeteria just to get away from my job, even if i have no intention of buying anything! I work 13 hour shifts and if I can get away for even 5 minutes I go. Although it is discouraged to have employees leave the floor for long periods of time. lunch is 30minutes whenever you can take your break and no more than 2 can go on break at the same time. I buy a drink at work everyday. ( diet soda or water). some times I eat a sandwhich, salad, bag of chips, nothing, or yogurt. i never liked to eat a meal at work, any job/ any length of shifts because I feel like it slows me down. I try to just eat one small thing when I am hungry. ( some mental thing I suppose lol). i do not like to bring in my lunch because I do not want it stored in a community fridge ( and am pretty grossed out when I buy something to eat at work). either way there is a chance of cross contamination!lol</p>
<p>I’d hate to eat lunch at my desk - I think you at least need a change of scene. And Marian’s office? That’s even worse! In offices where we all ate lunch together in an employee lounge we rarely talked about work. </p>
<p>One of my favorite lunch time experiences was in Germany when I was outsourced for a week to the office of someone who was working with our office on a project. Someone (I can’t remember if it was the boss or someone else in the office) used to cook a meal for the whole office - about 8 people if I remember correctly. We had a spinach casserole one day with poached eggs that was yummy! I’ve been regretting not getting the recipe ever since.</p>
<p>My favorite lunch is frozen yogurt with fresh blackberries. Or toast with peanut butter. And black tea with a lot of sugar. Gets the motor running.</p>
<p>For well over a decade a worked at a place that had a cafeteria and I made a salad for lunch or in the winter would buy a cup of soup and i could grab a yogurt if I needed breakfast. Now I “have to” leave to buy food so I’ve started bringing my own. I keep instant oatmeal in my overhead, yogurts and salad dressing in the fridge and make a quick salad in the morning before I head out. Once i got the routine down I didn’t find it a big problem. i keep my greens and topping separate and it travels easily in my briefcase. I eat at my desk or sometimes I’ll encounter someone in the kitchen and I’ll sit down chat and eat…</p>