Over all the years I’ve been working, I have always hated the lunch time at work. Why? Because I’m anti-social. I have to spend 8-10 hours per day working with people I don’t have much in common with and I like to spend my 30-60 minutes by myself.
Yet, I’m amazed at how many people at work still look forward to lunch and especially office lunches as the highlight of their day. I guess for some, especially if they’re married with kids, this might be the only social opportunity they get during the week.
I’m just thankful I’ve never had a job where I had to meet with clients on a regular basis.
Oh, no. I go out for lunch every day, in the coldest weather, so I don’t have to. Occasionally I like to meet a non-work compadre for lunch, but that’s less than once a month. Everyone here stays indoors - I wonder how they can stand each other, day after day, with no breaks!
Not one bit. While I generally like my coworkers and we benefit mutually from an 8 hour exchange of information and ideas, I also highly prize my lunchtime as a chance to unwind and recharge or to take care of personal business or interests. If nothing else, it’s usually my one time during the day to read the paper and, save some other pressing concern, that’s exactly what I plan to do.
Plus, office lunches just seem soooooo needleesly drug out. I can’t help but sit there thinking that instead of small talk I could actually be getting something done that matters. Don’t get me wrong… I like people, I’m just frustrated by needless waste and tolerate it best in smaller doses.
We don’t really have a common area to eat, so I feel no guilt about staying in my office or going out to do some errands. I work with a fairly pleasant group of people, so our occasional group lunches are nice enough.
I don’t even use my lunch hour for lunch – I eat a sandwich at my desk as I’m working, then take my break mid-afternoon and go for a walk. It’s good to get out of here and stretch my legs and clear my brain for half an hour.
Sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not. I usually bring my lunch, and a lot of times I spend the lunchtime at my desk surfing the internet and eating. But every once in a while I like to go out with coworkers.
Some of my coworkers go down the the cafeteria to eat their lunches, and I will on occasion go with them. But I don’t feel compelled, and I don’t mind saying I just want to read, catch up, whatever.
I’m mixed on it, but often my feelings mirror those of the OP. I often will head out on my own for lunch, or simply eat at my desk. It’s nice to have private time to not deal with your coworkers.
I hated one company that I worked at which had a policy of only allowing food in the cafeteria. Everyone was basically forced to eat together at big tables. It was so Jr. High School.
However, sometimes I enjoy the company of others and it’s important to play nice around the water cooler and be friendly with the other workers.
On another note, I’m of the opinion that in a perfect world eating would be just like going to the bathroom. Not something that is done in public unless absolutely nessesary. But, that’s just my own crazy opinion. I hate watching and listening to people eat.
I eat at my desk and tend to growl or snarl when people interrupt me at lunch.
Seriously, though, I do eat at my desk so I can continue to work - I have a flexible schedule and if I work at lunch, I’m able to go earlier. Once in a great while I’ll go out with someone, but very rarely.
When I was working, I would always take my lunch by myself. It was quite nice to get away from everyone and have my lunch alone. I enjoyed my hour away from the office. It was quiet and that is what it took to get me recharged. So, when I came back to the office, I was ready to finish out the day, feeling very refreshed.
I’m often completely antisocial at lunch. I usually drive to the park to take a walk. If it’s too cold or rainy for a walk, I’ll just sit in the park’s pagoda or in my car, enjoying the silence. No phones ringing, no office mates yammering to each other in their cubes. Just blissful silence while I stare at the lake. Ahhhhhh…
I guess I’m the opposite. My work is very asocial. It’s just me, alone in my office, hunched over a computer banging away on my own project.
So it’s nice to have lunch and socialize. It helps that my colleagues are a very smart, diverse bunch of people from all around the world. We talk about current events, TV shows, literature, movies, cooking, cooking, dining, etc. Whenver people bitch about their evil, stupid and annoying coworkers, I thank my lucky stars that I work with such great people.
My opinion used to be, around grades three to eight (and mostly is, still), that a good lunch just isn’t right without a good book.
Fortunately, I’ve evolved a little since then–but I still prefer eating (and reading) alone most of the time. It gives me time to get away and hear myself think.
If I stay at work for lunch and eat in the break room, I like to socalize with my co-workers. I work at Wal-Mart and it’s horribly retarted, and I always get reprimanded if I try to talk to someone while I’m working, so it’s always nice to get a chance to actually talk to my friends.
Sometimes, though, I’ll be antisocial at work. Pretty much everyone has a different schedule so everyone takes their breaks at different times and it’s kind of hit-or-miss if any of my friends wil be on break at the same time as me.
Hm. I live about 4 minutes away from where I work, and it’s an hour break. I usually just go home and watch tv, read, fiddle around on my computer, whatever. Staying at work for a full hour and just sitting around would be kinda silly.
At the only “real job” I had after college, my co-workers had terrible attitudes and I didn’t have much in common with them. We all worked in a large room together, and I had enough of their blathering to each other during work hours. For my 15-minute lunch break, I read a book alone while I ate, in my car if the weather was nice, rather than sit at the gossip table. The worst offender actually bitched about this during an, ahem, “meeting” we had to have with the boss when she and her cronies were harassing me. As if they wanted me to hang out with them anyway, and what business is it of theirs what I do on MY break?
Even after I went to the night shift and had more congenial co-workers, we still took separate breaks. We all liked our solitude and respected each other’s.
Of course, now that I work at home, I do enjoy socializing more than I used to, rather than having just Mr. S to talk to all the time. But when I’m in a working groove, I prefer to chow down and get back to work. Besides, I’m out in the sticks and my friends have their own lives, so it would be pretty hard to arrange a lunch date.
Some people can’t leave you eat without constantly telling you what to do when you get back.
Other’s spend the whole time bitch’n about what there doing. “You know what people, I came here to relax from the same shit, Shut up.”
Another problem is some people are gross, close you’re mouth, stop smacking, don’t spray the food at me, and wipe up your meal off of the table. Yes, I worked with someone that made their dinner on the table, handled all food at pot luck, and didn’t wash after using the toilet. It’s good to get that out of my system. Shudder.
Today is the the third consecutive weekday that I’ve gone out to lunch with co-workers – and different people each time. I’d say that I’m social at lunch.
Actually, going out to lunch is pretty unusual: most days I just walk over to the deli with one of the other writers, and then eat lunch at my desk. Every now and then my officemate and I will go to the lunchroom and play Scrabble while we eat, but usually I’m at my desk: lunchtime is when I catch up on the day’s news, read my daily comics, putz around the SDMB, etc. I like a mix of going out and staying at my desk.
Most of the time I’m antisocial and eat my lunch quietly away from everyone. Or go for a walk or run errands. The problem that I’ve found with this, though, is that everyone assumes that this is ALL I ever want to do and no one ever invites me to go out to lunch. I do feel a bit left out when a large group goes out to lunch and no one thinks to invite me. But knowing that I’ve brought it on myself by being antisocial, I don’t complain.
No. I think it’s perfectly all right to eat alone at work if you choose. I stay in my office at work while I eat lunch. It serves two good purposes. One, I can keep working without breaking my concentration; and two, it keeps me from interacting with my coworkers too much. I like them fine, see, but I think that the break room can be a breeding ground for gossip (hey, my personal life is hardly exciting, but it’s my personal life, after all!). Lunchtime gabbing with officemates can also encourage on-the-clock, time-wasting “water cooler” conversations if you get too personal. Since I’m generally pleasant and mind my own business, nobody I work with seems to mind this.
Of course, bribing them all with Danish once a month helps!
