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Andrew Dickens: Lunch breaks are outdated

Author
Andrew Dickens,
Publish Date
Thu, 11 Oct 2018, 12:18PM
Seven percent of respondents said they never took a break at all. Photo / Getty Images
Seven percent of respondents said they never took a break at all. Photo / Getty Images

Andrew Dickens: Lunch breaks are outdated

Author
Andrew Dickens,
Publish Date
Thu, 11 Oct 2018, 12:18PM

Well here we are at lunchtime and the question I have for you is are you on your lunch-break? Actually a better question is what on earth is a lunch-break in your eyes.

 

I say this because apparently, New Zealand is nation skipping its lunch break.

 

A survey by a recruitment firm asked 1253 professionals about their lunch habits and only 28 percent of Kiwi per cent said they take their full break most days, 22 per cent take half and 7 per cent never take a break.

 

So the conclusion is that we’re all too busy working.  We’re too busy.  It’s part of that thing these days where New Zealanders work some of the longest hours in the OECD for some of the lowest productivity.  We’re running to stand still.

 

The lunch break to me is a funny old concept because of my job. Radio shifts are not normal hours so lunch time for me has varied from 10 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon and God knows what it is for Bruce Russell.

 

Meanwhile a lot of people in this industry are always at lunch for their job. They’re schmoozing and communicating and eating and drinking.

 

Others I know have voluntarily abandoned lunch. They’re the ones who turn up at work at 7 am so they get productive time without interruption. They work through lunch and then they’re gone at 3 or 4 to miss the rush hour.

 

The modern workplace is a far different thing to the ones we had in the sixties and seventies. The 9 to 5, the overtime, the 10 am smoko, the 12 pm lunch break. Today every workplace is looking for what makes everything work best for every stakeholder.

 

The old precepts that are still ingrained in our employment legislation often cause problems as we try to fit square pegs in round holes.  For example, recent retail stoushes over meeting times and breaks and people taking phone calls or looking at social media in work times all are hangovers for simpler times.

 

Similarly, the mental gymnastics required these days to calculated holiday pay and entitlements when all our framework is built on hours is exhausting and unproductive.

 

The reality is that the modern world looks more at outputs rather than just hours of attendance.

 

To that end, the negotiation between employer and employee has never been more important in figuring out expectations and obligations. It’s part of the reason why the Labour Minister, Ian Lees-Galloway is pushing for industry-wide negotiations, a return to a type of awards system,  makes little sense. 

 

These days not only is every workplace different but every worker is too.

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