Jobs

While free lunches are a nice benefit that my company offers, I’d prefer to leave the office during my lunch break for personal errands and appointments.

Elaine Varelas provides guidance on having a productive conversation with your manager about wanting to make the most of your lunch break.

Ask the Job Doc. Boston.com

February 21, 2024

2 minutes to read

Q. My company offers free lunch for staff. I’ve only been at my company for a few months, but at past jobs I’ve always utilized my lunch break to go to dental/doctor appointments, run errands, go for long walks, SHOP, pick up prescriptions, make personal phone calls, etc. I feel as though there is pressure to not leave at lunchtime. Any advice on how to handle having a conversation with my manager about this?

A. Post-pandemic, companies are doing everything they can to encourage people to come back to the office and stay there. When organizations built large campuses, their goal was to make life easier for employees by limiting their need to leave the campus. Companies would have banks, dry cleaners, food services, onsite childcare centers, fitness centers, almost every kind of personal service that you could imagine was right on campus. Most employees loved this, until they realized that it didn’t give them the chance to break free from their work mindset.

Your lunch is a wonderful employee benefit and I’m sure many employees really appreciate that free lunch. This creates a great bonding opportunity for employees to sit with one another around a meal. And it also encourages people to go back to work more quickly as they don’t have to spend time leaving work to grab lunch and run the kind of errands that you’re talking about.

If you feel uncomfortable leaving, (which you shouldn’t) you can have a conversation with your manager expressing gratitude for the benefit and letting them know that you might not always take advantage of it as you have personal commitments that require you to step out during your lunch break. You might also ask if that’s ever posed a problem for any other employees who have chosen to use that personal time that way and if there are any concerns they might have, such as coverage or productivity.

Make sure that you’re aware of the amount of time that your lunchtime is and that is the time you take – not more. You might ask your manager to clarify the company policy regarding lunch breaks. In MA, workers have a right to at least a 30-minute meal break for every 6 hours worked in a calendar day. During their meal break, workers must be free of all duties and free to leave the workplace. At your workplace, do you feel pressure not to leave, or is this something that you’re imposing on yourself? If this is something that you’re doing to yourself, then stop, and speak to your manager so that you don’t feel like you are doing something wrong.

If you never take advantage of the free lunch benefit in the office, you will be missing out on an opportunity to build relationships with your colleagues. So, I encourage you to pick at least once or twice a week to enjoy the company of your colleagues, develop those relationships more consistently, and make your visibility and approachability known.