h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Don't you just love the modern world? It never fails to come up with the ideal solutions to those tricky problems which afflict us in our complicated lives.

Take the inventor of brownbagging, for example - the guy's a genius! You work your staff so hard that there isn't a single minute of their day which isn't double or triple-booked with meetings. So how do you cram even more work into their busy schedules? How can you get that team meeting or training session or performance review done? It's simple! You book the meeting during their lunch hour and invite them to bring a 'brown bag' packed lunch!

It's so simple. I can't believe nobody thought of it before. It's so funny now thinking back to those times when we actually didn't work for a short while in the middle of the day. I can't remember what we called these periods - 'breaks', I think. Some people would actually get up from their desks and walk around. I think a few even left the building and made use of those things whose name escapes me - 'muscles', is it?

And wasn't it weird seeing the world outside the office bathed in that stuff - what do you call it? Part of the EM spectrum… Daylight! That was it.

But now we're far more advanced a society. Our nutritional needs are catered for as we work, saving us all that time which we can put to good use on other work.

So, please will you join me in toasting the inventor of Brownbagging. The man who ensured that we maintain a healthy work-work balance.

Personally I told my former bosses what they could do with that idea...

There isn't actually that much protection in law

https://www.gov.uk/rest-breaks-work/overview

[BB]
aka Bolshie B******

"Domestic workers in a private house (eg a cleaner or au pair) aren’t entitled to rest breaks for health and safety reasons."

I can see that a child-minder can't vanish for twenty minutes, but a cleaner?

http://www.gov.uk/rest-breaks-work/overview

(The s in https prevents it linking)

I always try to get away from my desk at lunchtime - and outside if at all possible.

Now and again a working lunch is fine if it suits all participants, but constantly working through every lunch hour, and eating at your desk, is bad for your health!

If a working lunch is unavoidable, at the very least the company should have it catered to help compensate for the loss of personal time.

I work for an organisation that considers work to be for my benefit. Why on earth would I not want to do it. I breathe, don't I?

If that's what they think, They need serious BOFH re-education...

Hit post tooo soon

After all work is not for your benifit, it's for the taxmans, the companies and finally there might be some left to go to your local shyster sorry Banker.

I wanted to write something well thought out, but the memory of having to work in a role where there were no upper hours, nor entitlement to breaks brought back a panic attack. I sympathise with everyone still in such employment situations.

I think it's possibly worse now because there is such a real risk of losing any type of job and becoming unemployed.

I used to take a long walk on my lunch hour, and then have a quick bite to eat.

Business people don't seem particularly interested in benefitting from the findings of science, which generally indicate that you come back from your lunch hour in a refreshed frame of mind, such that you get *more* done for the day than you would have had you not taken the break. The psychology of being in control seems to direct managerial thinking, from what I can see.

[Amy P]

Yeah, I am very grateful to have a job, as I have been unemployed a

Sorry - don't know what happened there!

I have been long-term unemployed, and it is extremely demoralising to face rejection after rejection for many months...

It is challenging being in work too, though - I'm struggling to take enough breaks, as there's so much to do, and I am doing training as well at the moment, but today I did take the full hour I'm entitled to for lunch

Most jobs I know of, the lunch hour is unpaid and just 30 minutes. (Don't tell anyone, but I take a full hour most days.) I typically go out to a nearby restaurant and read a book while reading.

There are various cross-currents as some managements try to protect their workers from the ill health caused by sitting for long periods of time. Some have tried installing stand-up desks on the theory that standing is more cardiovascular than sitting [though, apparently, not by much]. We may eventually see a world in which workers are expected to walk on treadmills while they work.

I work for a company that values my abilities. We had a serious problem last Wednesday: a system had crashed and it took 14 hours to get it back working. My boss was careful to suggest breaks, sent me to have lunch at the appropriate time, and when I wouldn't take a break for sn evening meal went off and came back with pizzas for everyone. There wss also a break from work when there was a fire drill, which everyone had to participate in.

So no brown bagging.

I've put an hour for lunch into my calendar. If people try to invite me to lunch during that time, they're automatically told I'm busy.

Sorry. I meant to say if they try to invite me to a meeting.

The amount of double and triple booking I get renders that calendar 'busy' option useless. People don't care any more whether or not you're busy.

Obviously I can't attend more than one meeting at the same time, but there are ways around it. If I'm triple-booked I might do the following:

1. Attend the room of one meeting and sit in an unobtrusive corner.

2. Wear an earpiece and dial in to the second IM/audio teleconference meeting and listen to that - perhaps in one ear. I can't really speak, so I'll type any responses in the IM window.

3. Connect to the third IM meeting, but tell them I'm not on audio, and if they require anything of me, they'll have to type the question in the IM window.

4. Enjoy my lunch.

I've nothing *against* meetings - if they produce results or track and plan sensible progress and goals.

I've nothing against them if they strengthen the communication between people and departments.

But, so many in one day? Is this a really thought out good use of time? I get the feeling some of these meetings may be for the purpose of 'having a meeting' and play into the power of the person calling the meeting, rather than producing any tangible benefit to your company.

Or am a cynical person?