346. The Lunch Break Is Dead

The lunch break was the time of day where we built trust, loyalty and connection at work. When we killed the lunch break we killed connection. What happens now?

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The lunch break is dead.
We killed it.

And the ripple effects are stronger than you think.

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Remember when tech companies first started offering free food as a “perk”?

It was a smart move. I applaud them. They made you feel lucky to have endless granola bars, K-Cup coffee, and gourmet salads. Then they started integrating other offerings - like day care and laundry services.

It seemed like they were saving you money and saving you time.
It felt great.
You felt special.

At least for a little bit, you did.

Because what they didn’t admit to you was that this wasn’t about generosity - it was about containment.

They didn’t want you to leave your job.
Literally.

It didn’t take long for other companies to follow the tech leaders. It quickly became an important recruiting and retention tool to promote the “perks.”

Companies showed off their stocked kitchens, game-rooms, and microbrew taps like it was a competition to out-perk your competition.

We all thought we were being pampered. In reality, we were just being domesticated.

And now the after-effects are devastating.

The Lost War On Lunch

If you open your eyes to our new reality, you’ll quickly realize that the lunch break is dead. That one time of day when people used to step away, connect, and reset, has all but disappeared.

Here are a couple of brutal truths for you to nosh on:

• 62% of workers no longer leave their desk for lunch.¹

• Half skip lunch entirely at least once a week.²

This is exactly what companies were hoping for with the free food and endless perks. They simply wanted to keep you working.

They won that battle.
But by winning that battle, they lost the war.

People are working harder now than they were before, but the expected result turned into the unexpected. Productivity has plummeted.³

Why?

We stopped eating together. Then we stopped talking together. Then, somewhere along the line, we stopped belonging together.

The Connection Problem That Nobody Talks About

Restaurant traffic has declined for eight straight quarters. Business lunches, which once accounted for 10% of all restaurant spending, have nearly vanished.

But that’s not just bad news for restaurants, it’s bad for your company.

Those shared lunches - that daily camaraderie - they were the glue that bonded the disparate pieces of your company into a culture of collaboration.

Trust was built.
Loyalty was reinforced.
Even mentorship happened more effectively when people left the bubble together.

A decade ago, it took a 25% increase in salary to convince an employee to leave a job where they liked the people.

Today, people bail from a company for less than a 10% raise, and they don’t give it a second thought.

When lunch left, so did loyalty.

When you remove the human moments, you remove the human connection. And when the connection disappears, your company culture collapses.

Making Work More Pleasurable

Companies are continuously striving for greater efficiency. The world is moving increasingly faster, technology never sleeps, so we demand the same of our staff.

We push for more productivity.

We try to eliminate any semblance of downtime by mistaking it for “wasted time.”

We’ve automated communication to the point where the faucet never stops flowing.

And in doing all this, we’ve forgotten about our humanity and accidentally eliminated basic connectivity.

Now everyone’s calendar is packed with back-to-back Zooms, nobody eats lunch away from a screen, and the most talented people are quietly asking themselves why they are staying in their soul-sucking job.

The irony is nuts: by trying to make work more pleasurable, it was made less human.

Connection Isn’t Built Through Culture Decks

It’s hard to turn back the clock on this one. The increasingly hybrid nature of work has left us with a dynamic of detachment and solitude.

Many of us no longer thrive in the moments of cultivating a company culture as much as we hold on tightly to the freedom of seclusion.

But loyalty and belonging aren’t built in the confines of separate cells on a Zoom call. Community and creativity are products of human interaction and collaboration.

Your company doesn’t need a better communication tool - it needs a round of sandwiches.

It’s your job, regardless of your role, to make it safe to take a lunch break again.

Encourage your team and colleagues to walk away from their desks for 30 minutes. Go eat with them. Talk about something that has nothing to do with work.

Those are the important conversations.

Connection isn’t built through culture decks about core values. It’s built through shared time together - and sometimes shared food.

So before you convince yourself to have another lonely lunch at your desk, ask yourself whether the cost of that half hour is really greater than the cost of a collapsing culture.

I’m hoping you say “no.”

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Have you seen this loss of lunch negatively impacting your company?

Let me know in the comments.

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