Sick of meetings being scheduled right over lunch time? Petition to make lunch hours mandatory at your workplace.
We demand that [Company] require all employees to take a full, hour-long lunch break during each workday.
[Company] is known for its fast-paced work culture. Our reporters are on assignment around the clock, frequently skipping breaks and meals in order to stay on top of breaking news stories. However, a growing body of research suggests that fast-paced does not necessarily mean high performance—and can often lead to employee burnout. In particular, skipping lunch breaks leads workers to feel less productive, less engaged, and less satisfied with their jobs.
In fact, since new management increased employee workloads in 2016, job retention at [Company] has gone down by 10%. We feel that skipping lunch contributes to this trend. Previously, [Company] employees ate lunch in pairs or groups, enhancing our capacity for collaboration and offering a welcome opportunity to recharge our energy. Currently, workers who take full lunch breaks are judged as less productive, creating an unsustainable company culture that not only affects our performance but may also have a negative impact on [Company] ’s bottom line.
According to Tork’s recent “Take Back the Lunch Break” survey, employees who take a lunch break every day are more likely to say, “I am as effective and efficient as I would like to be” and “I am satisfied with my current job.” They are also more likely to report feeling valued as an employee and having a strong desire to be an active member in their company. In contrast, employees who skip lunch or eat while they work are more likely to experience negative health impacts such as chronic stress, weight gain, and digestive issues.
To avoid these consequences, we demand that management require all employees to take a one-hour lunch break during each full shift. Meetings must also be limited between the hours of 12:00 and 2:30 p.m. Only in this way will [Company] employees be able to renew their focus so as to keep producing the high-quality reporting that our readers rely on.