Do you go out to a restaurant for your work meal break?

[A Squared]

No, only get 20 mins to half an hour and bring own sandwich as i enjoy the alone time

 

[Newsies]

No, only get 20 mins to half an hour and bring own sandwich as i enjoy the alone time

I'm with you there -- we get an hour for lunch, but my job requires a lot of meetings, cross-functional projects, managing inboxes/social media interaction, etc. and my larger team does a LOT of team-building... which usually happens it the form of sharing our lunch break together for one reason or another. If I have a lunch hour that's not already committed to a team activity, I'm either sitting at my desk with a protein shake or walking 5 minutes into town for a walk and some time to myself

 

[kanerf]

I work in downtown DC across from the Mall and restaurants are plentiful, but it takes an hour or more for a meal which is something we do occasionally as a group, but not often. We have a Dunkin, Subway and a cafeteria in the building.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Retired now but sometimes I ate lunch at restaurants. Often it was related to work but not always.

 

[clappyclaps]

I pretty much never go out for lunch when working. I only go into the office 2 days a week, and when I do I'll usually take lunch with me as it's healthier and cheaper. We have a canteen onsite but it doesnt have the best variety of food anymore. I'm fortunate enough that I work flexible hours so lunch breaks can be as long as we need, but when working from home I tend to spend them doing housework or going out for walks rather than spend time eating out. Would rather eat out on my days off!

 

[Kitty 34]

I ate in the school cafeteria when teaching.

 

[slo]

I live 3 miles from my work, so I go home for lunch, which I love. I let the dog out, do a couple chores, sometimes put dinner in the crock pot and can make myself a lunch that’s better than eating out. I’m very grateful that I can do this.

 

[LoveDaisy]

I bring my lunch to work most days. I go out to lunch probably twice a month with coworkers and it’s usually a working lunch where we talk through a project or issue. My boss encourages me to go to build and maintain relationships.

 

[china mom]

I picked "other" because ant one point or another, each of the answers has applied. Probably 85% of the time, I either skip lunch or nibble on what I refer to as "desk food" (random snacks accumulated in my desk drawers) Leftovers from home and carry out from a restaurant make up the next 13% (eaten at my desk) . A couple of times a year, our work unit may sit down at a restaurant. Usually to celebrate something like someone transferring or the like.

At my last position with the same employer but different department, we did a sit down lunch maybe once a month but TBH, we didn't really have enough work to fill our day so we would disappear quite often (30 minute run to a coffee shop on the other side of the county - and I don't even drink coffee) and I think our supervisor was actually happy to have us out of her hair.

 

[MGMmjl]

I work in the office 3 days a week and from home 2 days a week. Occasionally, I will go out to eat with co-workers one day a week that I'm at the office (we might do that twice a month.) I bring my lunch and eat at my desk the rest of the time. When we do go out, we can make it back to the office within the hour allotted for lunch.

 

[Minnesota!]

Not frequently, but we did our monthly staff meetings at restaurants. Restaurants were always packed at lunchtime pre-Covid.

Now, I bring my lunch or wait to get home to eat, since I am only in office about 15 hours/week.

 

[sam_gordon]

When I worked in an office, I would go out for lunch probably 90% of the time. Most of the times I didn't, I was working through lunch. If I end up deep on a project until 2p and I leave at 5, it doesn't make sense to take a lunch break. Grab a candy bar/sandwich, and power through.

When I did go out, it was usually to a nearby fast food place, although I'd "treat" myself to a restaurant about once a week. I could get the fast food done in about 30 minutes and the restaurant in about 1:15 (it was a little further away). But my job wasn't "time dependent", so the extra time didn't matter.

There is definitely something about getting away from the office that is beneficial.

And yes, it was more expensive, and I tried fixing lunch at home and bringing it in and I just couldn't get it to work. Kudos to those who can.

 

[john7994]

In the office 3-4 per week, rarely if ever go to lunch while at work. Our office does provide one lunch per week, something for breakfast in the morning, all kinds of snacks, ramen bowls, cereals etc, and a stocked fridge including free beverages from ensure to sodas.

 

[kdonnel]

I work from home but do occasionally go out to eat for lunch, sometimes at a sit down restaurant. My job has always been one that is very flexible on the working hours.

 

[ronandannette]

In the office 3-4 per week, rarely if ever go to lunch while at work. Our office does provide one lunch per week, something for breakfast in the morning, all kinds of snacks, ramen bowls, cereals etc, and a stocked fridge including free beverages from ensure to sodas.

My company does this too. It seems to be a very important "perk" for the younger people on staff.

 

[easyas123]

I live 3 miles from my work, so I go home for lunch, which I love. I let the dog out, do a couple chores, sometimes put dinner in the crock pot and can make myself a lunch that’s better than eating out.

Us, too. Depending on the day one of us (my husband and I work together) will be at one of our three offices or a jobsite so it all depends on the day if we have brought lunch, go home for lunch or order out. Once or twice a month I order lunch in for whatever office I'm in and all the employees there.

 

[_19disnA]

Rarely go out to lunch at the office where I work. We get 1/2 hr for lunch and hardly anyone wants to work longer since driving to a restaurant, ordering and eating takes at least 1-1.5 hrs. Occasionally a few want to go to one of fast food places across the street, but it still like a race to walk there, eat fast and get back in time. Not worth the hassle. I don't know of anyone where I work who doesn't eat lunch. Most bring something from home or eat in the cafeteria. No one is constantly that busy they can't take a break for lunch. In addition, most everyone you would interact with are also out to lunch, so you really don't gain much by not eating (and no one is impressed if you claim you always work through lunch.............LOL).

I do laugh at a few in our office who constantly TALK about how busy they are, but they are the same ones who always know what the schedule of the boss is and 10 minutes after the boss leaves, they are flying out the door.............no one is fooled !!! Every Friday afternoon they have some lame excuse why they have to leave early.

Very infrequently the boss might take his/her direct reports out to lunch for some special occasion/holiday/etc. That is really the exception rather than the rule where I work.

 

[disneychrista]

There are a couple places within walking distance of where I work that I could easily get a meal and back to work on time with no issues. But in general, I don't. Mostly for cost vs time.

 

[Micca]

Haven't worked in an office setting for almost 20 years. Work schedules were mostly just a suggestion, as long as the work got done you could take pretty much all the time you wanted or needed. Going out to eat for lunch was very common and getting to/from a restaurant could be accomplished in under an hour, but if it was closer to 90 minutes, that was ok too but you'd have the work to finish when you returned to the office. With regard to expense, the McDonald's combo meal in the 90s was under $4 for burger/fries/drink.

 

[Mommb]

Back when most of my department worked in the same office, I would go out with 1-4 people once or twice a month. It was useful for team bonding and for learning what was going on around the office (new projects in the pipeline, people about to retire or leave for other opportunities, etc.). We were all salaried, and the expectation was that we would meet all project deadlines and stay late (or work from home in the evening) if we had taken more than 45 minutes for lunch and still had work due that day. I appreciated that most managers recognized the value of breaks and trusted us to manage our time appropriately.

After our office reopened a few years ago, most people continued working from home so I rarely see colleagues at the office unless we are having a group meeting (in which case we typically have a catered lunch).