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Recession Versus Your Lunch

By Dennis McCafferty on 2010-07-20


Want a break? You might want to take up smoking. We're not endorsing any unhealthy habits, just looking at some stats on break time at work. Turns out the long recession pinches in ways that go beyond lost jobs, smaller paychecks and increased workloads for survivors. The extended downturn is leaving a dent on workers' lifestyles and attitudes, too, according to a new survey from CareerBuilder. Take two givens of office culture: lunch hour and the smoke break. With a constant sense of uncertainty and even fear about job security, many professionals are avoiding eating out because they want to save money. Some of them don't even feel they have time for lunch anymore; when if they do take time for lunch, they are more likely to be multi-tasking than kicking back with co-workers. Meanwhile, resentment is clearly emerging between those who cut out for smoking breaks and those left behind doing the work. The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder, and was taken by nearly 4,500 U.S. workers age 18 or over.
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One in ten workers say they never take a lunch break.

47 percent of workers report that they've been packing a lunch more often to eat healthier or save money.

32 percent of workers say they take less than a half hour for a lunch break.

18 percent say they typically don't leave their desks during a lunch break, and eat in their workspaces five days a week.

23 percent of workers spend their lunch breaks hanging out with co-workers.

41 percent of workers say they run errands, work, or shop during a lunch break.

Just 10 percent use the lunch break as a chance to exercise by working out or walking.

44 percent of workers who smoke say they're more likely to quit because of the economy the average cost of a pack of cigarettes is about $6).

78 percent of workers who smoke take up to 10 minutes for each smoke break.

70 percent of workers who smoke take as many as three smoke breaks a day.

12 percent of workers who smoke take more than five smoke breaks during the work day.

22 percent of non-smoking workers are bothered by the fact that their smoking colleagues get a work break and they don't.

20 percent of non-smokers are bothered by smokers because they feel it impacts productivity.

10 percent of non-smokers are bothered by co-workers who smoke because they feel they need to do more work because of their colleagues' habit.

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