Do you work during your lunch break?

[richard_s]

I always used to when I worked in education and never got any thanks for it though I did eventually get it agreed that if I could finish early as long as the Technician who always took his lunch was there.

Now I'm in the private sector I find myself in a novel situation. I tend to carry on working through my lunch break and my boss keeps threatening to fire to me unless I stop and have a break

[powdarrmonkey]

Tricky - I make sure I get a good half hour in the dining room with the rest of the department. Technically I should have an hour, but by then I'm bored - so I take the time in little bits elsewhere in the day, or leave appropriately early provided there's no reason not to.

[mossj]

Nope never have one, never will.

[laserblazer]

After 10 years most of the staff now know that I will simply ignore them if they bother me whilst I'm actually eating my lunch but expect me to be sorting out their problems within 10 minutes.

[penfold]

I used to get asked all the time to do stuff, and sometimes I would depeneding on what the problem was. Now I just sat that I will have a look at it after my lunch. I also occasionally get the response from kids that the homework is due in after lunch and they need to *print it* (replace for problem). My response has always been that it should have been done at home. But I have also informed teachers that sending any pupils to me can only be done at breaktime and the start of lunch time as I can ensure I will be there.

Slowly the teachers also got the message that I have 30 mins for lunch at the same time every day. It's rare that I get asked to do stuff now in my lunch break, and normally this would only be if there has been external support turn up during my lunch break which can be a pain.

[enjay]

I will generally answer "one sentence questions", anything bigger than that I tell people to speak to me later or email me/put a note in my pigeon hole about it. Other than that, I get my full hour (it did take some "training" of staff to get to this point, mind you).

Sometimes urgent things come up which I have to deal with immediately, but that is the nature of the job.

If I do find myself working a lot of one lunchbreak or before/after my normal hours, I just leave early on another day. Flexibility is a two-way process.

[teejay]

If I have lunch in the office or anywhere round school I will get disturbed with the usual requests. I never used to mind, as we could be flexible with our working hours, so if I woprked through lunch I could come in late/go early another day.
Now we have single status, our hours are fixed and also the exact times we have to take for lunch, with changes having to be agreed by the HT, so we've now arranged a rota of lunch breaks so we always have the helpdesk covered and I've banned anyone staying in the office when it's their lunch break.
None of us were happy about it at first as we had all got into the habit of lunch at desk and working through, but I must admit now we've been doing it a while everyone prefers it as they feel more refreshed by having a break away from the hassle.

[wagnerk]

Yes we work lunch breaks but....

We can all leave earlier as we dont include the lunch break - so I'm not complaining ...

Same for us...

-ken

[northern_bloke]

I have never had one, at least not a full one. My keyboard is full uf crumbs as evidence. We generally type as we eat, which is not very hygenic.

One day we may find the illusive lunch break, until then it's business as usual

[Butuz]

I grab food from the canteen and go back to my office. So a working lunch every day.

Tech does the same.

I have thought about it before. Glad this poll has come up!

Butuz

[somabc]

I would help people during my lunch break but only if it was clear that the problem needed to be looked at right away. It is acceptable to schedule a time after your break to clear up the problem.

When I worked in a school I found I could get the most work done when classes were not in session, ie Before 9am, after 3pm and at lunch so would schedule my lunch break to start 30 min before the rest of the school broke for lunch.

If you have a good helpdesk system you should not have this problem as staff should only come knocking on your door in emergencies and of course you can take steps to ensure these rarely happen

[AdamK]

We tend to eat our lunch while working pretty much every day. Other than Fridays, Friday is Pizza Friday and we lock down the department and eat loads of Pizza with the IT Teachers!

[Gatt]

If you have a good helpdesk system you should not have this problem as staff should only come knocking on your door in emergencies and of course you can take steps to ensure these rarely happen

Which is why I am getting a trapdoor fitted just in front of the door, linked to a large button on my desk.. If they knock, I press the button and magically they disappear..

[Andie]

For me, working through lunch break is often the only way I can get access to the machines to do anything meaningful. Sometimes I then take a break later, but I rarely get more than half an hour (should officially be an hour). But then, if we're getting interrupted to deal with things at lunchtimes, surely that means all the staff in school are working over their lunch too? The only difference is the official way you get paid (hourly or salary), and therefore whether or not you get paid to work lunch hours or not. I can't really complain, because with my employers it seems to work both ways in that if I have a crisis at home (kids or parents seriously ill), then I can leave work to deal with it without too much of a problem.

[gibbo_ap]

we walk down the end of the road most days to get a micro burger or some such. come bk to the office and work whilst we eat. even if i dont go the shop i still escape to go for a quick smoke.

but it is a case of eating whilst working.