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The spreading of artificial intelligence applications in U.S. workplaces is only the most recent method employers are using to increase productivity. Now, new data is proposing a decidedly lower-tech manner of achieving similar results in improving employee focus, happiness, and performance: Just make sure they’re eating lunch.
The business benefits of workers getting their midday chow became clear in a survey of 1,000 full-time employees by corporate food provider ezCater. It found that 88 percent of respondents said that not eating lunch caused their job performance to dip. Around 43 percent of people skipping the noon meal blamed that slumping output on needing more time to complete tasks on an empty stomach, with 39 percent saying the distraction led them to make more mistakes.
The consequences of those afternoon productivity declines are probably affecting workplaces more than employers suspect. About 51 percent of survey participants said they skip lunch at least once during the workweek, and 33 percent said they go without twice a week or more.
One reason for that increasing lunchlessness is how inflation is hitting workers’ eating habits as hard as it’s pinching their wallets.
Whether it’s brown-bagged from home or bought from a restaurant or deli, the average employee now spends $108.68 per week on lunches, a jump of more than 20 percent from last year. Those higher costs led 74 percent of survey participants to say they’d adjusted their eating habits to save money.
But there are other reasons respondents said they go without lunch. Time restrictions from heavy workloads was one often-cited factor, as was the increase in meetings scheduled over the noon hour. Many other workers said they skipped the meal out of worries managers might frown on their taking a break, with Gen-Zers particularly concerned.
“When your youngest employees feel guilty about taking their lunch break, it’s a big red flag,” said ezCater vice president of people Robert Kaskel in comments on the findings. “Pair this lunch guilt with employees’ tendency to skip lunch for short-term productivity gains and business leaders have a performance and burnout issue on their hands.”
Another negative result of employees skipping lunch is what the ezCater report on the survey called workplace “hanger.” That feeling of irritability, even anger when hunger starts gnawing at employees also eats away at their focus and enthusiasm, and even creates tensions between colleagues.
Nearly 85 percent of respondents reported battling “hanger” at least once each week. That was only slightly more than the 82 percent who said they looked forward to their lunch break, and then felt disappointed and grumpy when they had to pass it up.
“Our data shows that hangry workers are bad for business: Forty-three percent take longer to complete tasks, 38 percent report being blunt with colleagues, and 25 percent avoid interacting with their peers,” Kaskel said.
But a rising number of employees have found a solution to both fulfill their lunching desires, and deal with workloads or other obligations getting in the way of those. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they now tuck into a midday meal during meetings scheduled over the noon hour, with half of those saying they do so every week.
That compromise allows workers to enjoy the lunches they’ve been thinking about all morning, and provides employers the better performance benefits from employees working on full stomachs.
What’s the downside for companies in that? Many survey participants said having to work while they eat also increases their appetite for bosses providing and paying for those working meals. Meaning that for business owners, there’s still no such thing as a free lunch.
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Bruce Crumley
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