I have always been one to point out to my officemates that the idea of eating lunch at your desk is more fable than reality. Sure, you may swiftly return from the office kitchen to your desk with the intention of eating the hurriedly prepared meal of mediocrity you put together that morning, or the five-course feast you meticulously planned out and put together the night before. The reality is, however, that meal, once warm from being blasted with microwaves, will sit on your desk, cool and congeal, as you neglect it and opt only nibble at it, or perhaps take a few large chomps, as you continue your work. In two hours time, you will be more hungry than you were when lunch first began, and it will still be there, lying before you, no longer the sodium-enriched temptress it once was.
The at-desk lunch isn’t a lunch; in fact, it’s barely a snack-break. It’s a myth of the office place. And while some have become masters of at-desk eating, for most of us, from the moment we return from our desk, we quickly become reabsorbed in our work, forgetting about the re-heated spaghetti on the plastic plates before us. Instead of eating it at its peak “freshness,” we allow condensation to build beneath the plates and for the pasta to become tough and inedible. The truth is, lunch is an invaluable part of any work day, and not eating it could actually be quite counterproductive and detrimental to your health.
A recent U.S. News & World Report article, in light of a recent poll on office place lunch habits conducted by Right Management, makes this very point. Katy Marquardt, the author of the article observes that, “Lunch breaks are good for your physical and mental health—and even your company’s bottom line.” She states that not taking a lunch could adversely affect one’s stress levels, which might result in “poor health and decreased productivity.” This sentiment is echoed by Catherine McCarthy of The Energy Project: “We don’t expect our cars to run on a single tank of gas…But somehow we don’t apply the same logic to ourselves.”
The fact is, and although it is a cliché, it is important to recharge your batteries once in a while—to take some time to relax, and dissociate yourself from your work. The idea that you can, or should, eat at your desk is twisted logic, and fails to recognize the long-term psychological and physiological health risks associated with, or which might potentially stem from an uninterrupted workday.
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