Is Lunch Not Sacred Anymore?

The 8 hour workday became 9, became 10, became 11... What changed? Inefficiency and poor time management.

Once employers realized that they can't just keep upping the required working hours, they started encroaching on the one last bastion we had for reclaiming some semblance of sanity: lunch. What has happened to lunch? The one escape, breather, once sacred time in the workday has become a new slot for meetings. "Let's meet over lunch" should be followed up by a swift kick to the groin.

Here's my pitch. Meeting tokens. You're given 3 tokens a week.
Schedule a meeting? You use a token.
Attend a meeting? You use a token.
Once you're out, you're out. Spend them wisely.
This would flush out employees whose sole function is to schedule and hide in meetings to look important. It would also squash the armchair quarterbacks who only attend meetings to get involved in things they shouldn't. Screw those guys.

If it can be solved with an email, you don't need a meeting.

What are your thoughts? Let's meet over lunch to discuss.

I have found that the people always wanting meetings are the people who at home are lonely. Maybe it is just that way here but the guy that always wants meetings or always wants to go to meetings is usually the guy that is divorced with no children at home. The only way they get companionship.

Bring in a fresh bag of pig skins and a Coke.

Ruffle the bag when someone says something stupid. When someone says something good eat a pork rind and nod in approval.
Constantly slurp on your Coke just to annoy.

evil clown assault

GodStang said:

I have found that the people always wanting meetings are the people who at home are lonely. Maybe it is just that way here but the guy that always wants meetings or always wants to go to meetings is usually the guy that is divorced with no children at home. The only way they get companionship.

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Makes sense, but it doesn't excuse their inability to value others' time. Back when I was in management (pre-lobotomy, I opted out and moved back to engineering), I was stuck in up to 7 hours of meetings a day. Most were completely useless, so I worked through them on my laptop.

I don't get it. Someone has to have enough intelligence to start a company and get it off the ground. Somewhere along the lines the company gets bloat, overhead skyrockets, and they wonder why they can't stay competitive.

It also spills over onto Saturdays. I just work from home after normal business hours if I need to catch up on something.

DaleM said:

Bring in a fresh bag of pig skins and a Coke.

Ruffle the bag when someone says something stupid. When someone says something good eat a pork rind and nod in approval.
Constantly slurp on your Coke just to annoy.

Click to expand...

Lunch-munchers.. Ah those drive me nuts. I walk out of meetings where people are chewing with their mouths open.

I completely see your stance on this topic, however I believe it comes down to ones profession. I’ve been in sales my entire life and majority of the time I don’t get to take a lunch break due to servicing clientele. This was especially true when in a inbound sales role. Now that I’m outside lunch meetings and hectic daily schedules are the norm.


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CV355 said:

Makes sense, but it doesn't excuse their inability to value others' time. Back when I was in management (pre-lobotomy, I opted out and moved back to engineering), I was stuck in up to 7 hours of meetings a day. Most were completely useless, so I worked through them on my laptop.

I don't get it. Someone has to have enough intelligence to start a company and get it off the ground. Somewhere along the lines the company gets bloat, overhead skyrockets, and they wonder why they can't stay competitive.

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Ya I am in engineering also. I know what you are saying. We had one where our boss was told about a big meeting two weeks out but was not told what it was about. We spent two full days full staff of meetings trying to "guess" what that meeting was about and to make sure we were prepared. In the end he thought another company was trying to take us over and he wanted to "prove" that they could not. Nope it was just the company telling us they wanted to try a new setup and to let us know... A great waste of time.

VENOM1 said:

I completely see your stance on this topic, however I believe it comes down to ones profession. I’ve been in sales my entire life and majority of the time I don’t get to take a lunch break due to servicing clientele. This was especially true when in a inbound sales role. Now that I’m outside lunch meetings and hectic daily schedules are the norm.

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True, but sales is a little different. The "meeting" atmosphere over lunch in sales is more of forming business relationships than sitting around determining which thumb to shove in which orifice. Then, scheduling a recurring meeting to discuss what happened with each thumb.

GodStang said:

Ya I am in engineering also. I know what you are saying. We had one where our boss was told about a big meeting two weeks out but was not told what it was about. We spent two full days full staff of meetings trying to "guess" what that meeting was about and to make sure we were prepared. In the end he thought another company was trying to take us over and he wanted to "prove" that they could not. Nope it was just the company telling us they wanted to try a new setup and to let us know... A great waste of time.

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Pre-meetings! We used to have those before planning meetings (Where the dept managers had already planned, but the GM wanted to get his grubby mitts all over it, thank God that guy is gone).

God I hate meetings!!! They are a total waste of time. I could be working instead of sitting in a room just so that person can hear himself talk.

so glad I work in an office by myself lololol

Wifey has meetings about every day, but she's a headhunter, so its bound to happen.

The only frustrating thing about meetings is when I can't get a manager out of one to help me with a car deal!!! Lmao

Thank God our managers don't drag all the salesmen in to every meeting. We used to have one every morning, and it became redundant so they stopped.

Unfortunately, there are no federal laws requiring rest or break during a work day, but some states may require rest or lunch depending on your work state.

Employers know their state laws and if no law exists, take advantage of the work day situation, including those that are salaried ( not hourly).

I think it is prudent to give a lunch break for employees to relax for 30 mins or even an hour. A happy employee with an hour to rest is more productive towards the end of the day than one who does not get a break.....personal opinion. I have an assistant who can take lunch sometime during the day....for one hour....and I don’t bother her while she is on her time.


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Ohio Snake said:

I have an assistant who can take lunch sometime during the day....for one hour....and I don’t bother her while she is on her time.

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You're doing God's work my friend.

I usually work through the 15 minute breaks we get, or go for a walk.
If I'm working with someone, training/explaining something/etc, if it approaches break or lunch, I say "hey, let's reconnect afterwards." I prefer 1 on 1 interactions rather than meetings.

And remember. None of us is as dumb as all of us.

Side story: I sat through an engineering review meeting with another engineer. He told me about a little situation that was going on and I told him I had his back. We get to this meeting and he explains his design, goes through the motions, takes feedback, etc. Nothing bad so far. At the end of the meeting, we had an ADJACENT meeting for the same project. I am not kidding, everyone got up, picked up their laptops, went to another conference room, the SAME team sat back down and asked to see the updates discussed in the previous meeting. I called everyone out on it (Got talked to by HR afterwards). "So did I fall into the Twilight Zone or something? We just got finished discuss this. You were all there. We walked from one room to the other, sat down, and started asking about what happened during the 30 second walk? Is this reality? Come on ____, let's go get some actual work done and let these geniuses mull over nothing." Those employees are no longer at the company I work for.

we dont do many full on meetings here but we'll pull the appropriate people together and take 5-10 minutes to go over an issue or if we change something.

what I hate are the damned outside sales people that want to meet for "just 30 minutes" and on the are occasion you agree they show up like a pack of wolves with 2-4 people. Apparently they can't go out on their own anymore.

DaleM said:

Bring in a fresh bag of pig skins and a Coke.

Ruffle the bag when someone says something stupid. When someone says something good eat a pork rind and nod in approval.
Constantly slurp on your Coke just to annoy.

evil clown assault

Click to expand...

added bonus of smoking the room out. I love pork rinds, but if you ain't the one eating them, they can smell pretty fierce and in the confines of a little conference room they are going to make some folks gag.

Welcome to Dilbert



Sometimes I feel like Scott Adams would have an aneurysm if he shadowed me for a day. I feel like I have the observance/vigilance of Dilbert and the misanthropy of Dogbert

03Sssnake said:

added bonus of smoking the room out. I love pork rinds, but if you ain't the one eating them, they can smell pretty fierce and in the confines of a little conference room they are going to make some folks gag.

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Used to work with a guy who "smoked" the room out with his own special blend, if you know what I mean. I should start doing that.

Welcome to wagecel life.

Glad to be out of the rat race and workin 20 hours a week cause I want to.

BrunotheBoxer said:

Welcome to wagecel life.

Glad to be out of the rat race and workin 20 hours a week cause I want to.

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I hear that, figure in the next 10 years once the girls are in college etc. the wife and I will cash out and leave the Houston area. We will probably move to the family ranch and never look back.

LOL, we have "Hawaiian Shirt-BBQ Fridays", BBQ lunches, food brought in for lunches as often as I have everyone here.

A lunch meeting, or a meeting during lunch time should be compensated by the employer in some manner. if it is not, your employer does not care about his/her (whatever pronoun you prefer) employees.

Of course our people come in early, stay late, and will just about do anything when it is needed to help the company.

This is why small business wins.

E

CV355 said:

The 8 hour workday became 9, became 10, became 11... What changed? Inefficiency and poor time management.

Once employers realized that they can't just keep upping the required working hours, they started encroaching on the one last bastion we had for reclaiming some semblance of sanity: lunch. What has happened to lunch? The one escape, breather, once sacred time in the workday has become a new slot for meetings. "Let's meet over lunch" should be followed up by a swift kick to the groin.

Here's my pitch. Meeting tokens. You're given 3 tokens a week.
Schedule a meeting? You use a token.
Attend a meeting? You use a token.
Once you're out, you're out. Spend them wisely.
This would flush out employees whose sole function is to schedule and hide in meetings to look important. It would also squash the armchair quarterbacks who only attend meetings to get involved in things they shouldn't. Screw those guys.

If it can be solved with an email, you don't need a meeting.

What are your thoughts? Let's meet over lunch to discuss.

Click to expand...

It's called a calendar block. And if someone asks in person, you say no.

What are you, fresh out of college?

BrunotheBoxer said:

Welcome to wagecel life.

Glad to be out of the rat race and workin 20 hours a week cause I want to.

Click to expand...

At this point, I'm considering living in a shed and working at Walmart.

Great Asp said:

A lunch meeting, or a meeting during lunch time should be compensated by the employer in some manner.

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If it was every once in a while, sure. But having to schedule a lunch meeting multiple times a week because of inefficient/poor planning isn't a good business strategy.

And you're 100% right about small businesses.

Coiled03 said:

It's called a calendar block. And if someone asks in person, you say no.

What are you, fresh out of college?

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HAHAHAHA that never works. Ever. You assume people care about calendars? I used to work with a dimwit who would schedule 3 simultaneous meetings in the same room. And no, I've been out of college for 12 years.