Why You Shouldn’t Work Through Your Lunch Break

When I was a young, new teacher (I’m still young, I’m just not as new), I worked through my lunch break. I needed to be productive and doing things at all times. Everyone worked through lunch, right?

Often I would also have students in my classroom eat their lunch to build a bigger bond with me. I felt like a great teacher to devote my lunch period to my students while my more veteran and seasoned colleagues selfishly left the building and took their lunch away from their students. That meant I was a more committed teacher than them, right?

Well, I was wrong.

It worked well for the first month of my teaching career. But it soon led me to get burned out and completely exhausted at the end of the day. Not to mention I became less productive at the end of the day and fell asleep the moment I hit home.

That mode of working was completely unsustainable.

Now, during my lunch break, I refuse to work. Most of the time, I refuse to even be in my school building. I will leave the building and take the time for myself, sitting in my car, going on social media, and playing mindless games on my phone. I will do whatever possible to not take my lunch in my car. I’ll often peruse the McDonald’s drive-thru if I didn’t have time to bring my own lunch. Sometimes, after I eat my lunch, I’ll fall into a traditional food coma and take a 20–25 minute nap for myself before going back to work.

Now, I’m more effective and have a stronger work-life balance than I ever have as a teacher. Of course, there are a lot of different factors in that effectiveness, including experience.

But making it a point to take my lunch break was undeniably one of those factors.

Research shows breaks, even those that last 15 to 20 minutes, help us acquire greater levels of concentration. Tony Schwartz at the Harvard Business Review, who coaches executives, talks frequently to clients who take their lunch by eating it for less than five minutes at their desk. And with a lot of these clients, this lifestyle isn’t productive or effective. For one client, Schwartz recommended getting out for lunch for at least 30 minutes every day, and with this particular client, they had to schedule lunch in their calendars.

Especially for executives and management, leaving the office for lunch or taking your lunch break visibly is especially important because it sets a precedent: if your boss is taking their lunch break and leaving the building or office to do so (or refusing to answer e-mails or be on Zoom these days), it should send the message you are able to as well. I’ve frequently seen my principal out and about during my lunch break as well, and we exchange greetings briefly before going our separate ways.

Schwartz encourages us to take that lunch break to have a more sustainable relationship with work. A 2018 survey by Tork found greater links between employee engagement and employees who take a lunch break.

There’s another reason to take a lunch if you can: it sends a message to yourself and others. David Bukszpan at CNBC says people who don’t take a lunch break have been shown as more likely to work weekends and nights.

“That may indicate that once employees surrender their lunch breaks, it leads to a mindset in which all of their free time is now up for grabs,” Bukszpan says.

I needed a lunch break not only when I am working in the building, but when I was working at home, too. It was the only time I could essentially do whatever I want and not have any structured obligations. There’s a reason employers don’t have to pay employees for their lunch break either, so if you’re not getting paid for your lunch break (which is the case in some cases), why would you work?

The lunch break is also a great time to socialize with my co-workers and get to know them outside of work. It’s a time to realize there are more important things than just work. It’s one of the only times you get just for yourself and let yourself be relaxed, and for me, I have my most difficult class right after lunch so it helps me de-stress and mentally prepare for the most difficult part of my day.

So take your lunch break. Take all the time you’re allotted to do anything besides work — you deserve to put yourself first and recharge yourself for the rest of the day.

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This post was previously published on Ryan Fan’s blog.

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