What lunch hour? More employees today are forgoing the traditional long lunch and taking an abbreviated afternoon break instead, using the time they'd normally eat to keep working or get other errands done.
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It's a sign of just how time-starved employees have become: More than half of employees take 30 minutes or less to eat, according to a survey of more than 1,000 workers on behalf of KFC.
Sixty-three percent say the lunch hour is the biggest myth in office life today.
American workers today are taking less time for lunch than they used to. Fifty-five percent of workers take half an hour or less, according to a 2005 study by Grand Rapids, Mich.-based office furniture maker Steelcase.
Workers in 2005 were spending 14% less time breaking for lunch - 31 minutes - compared with 1996, when workers spent an average of 36 minutes a day for lunch.
Blame it on too much work, not enough time for personal errands, the value of face time and greater productivity demands.
Riza Berkan, CEO of New York-based Hakia, a search engine, has employees in Turkey, England, India and Russia.
Trying to accommodate the different time zones means his lunch is usually downing something small while walking the streets of Manhattan.
"It's the nature of business today," Berkan says.
Some lunches are being forfeited by employees, but companies also have come under fire for not granting their workers enough of a break.
In 2005, a California jury awarded more than $172 million to more than 100,000 current and former Wal-Mart workers who claimed they were illegally denied lunch breaks and asked to clock back in before their breaks were over.
Executives, professionals and other non-hourly employees are generally not entitled under federal law to any break for lunch, according to Robin Bond, an employment lawyer in Wayne, Pa.
But employees who are paid hourly or who are covered under union collective bargaining agreements typically are supposed to get regular breaks, including a 30-minute lunch for five hours of work.
Employers could face legal claims from eligible hourly workers who aren't given those breaks, or even from eligible employees who voluntarily work through lunch.
Some states, such as California, also have their own statutes mandating lunch breaks for workers.
"I see more and more in our culture where being overworked is a badge of courage. It's a major mistake to let work encroach even further on this time," Bond says.
"People really need a break."
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