Today is my first day in 16 years that I will have to clock out for lunch.
I had been salaried since 2000. But I decided to change fields this last year from Accounts Receivable to HR, and I was a temp all last year until yesterday. When I was salaried I always left the office to go eat somewhere or run errands. Now I am allotting myself 30 minutes of lunch time to run upstairs heat up my soup, eat it in peace and run back downstairs to clock in. I like to try to leave the office at 4:50 because I have an hour and a half drive time each way (took the job for experience)so I have to be really careful about when I arrive and how much lunch time to use.
I’m hoping my recent PHR certification and past 15 years of management experience get me an opportunity to get back to being salaried because this sucks.
I walk down to an area with a couple of small shops and buy something for lunch. It’s about 3/4 of a mile away, and it’s really nice to leave my desk and move around a bit in the middle of the day. It’s usually about an hour total.
I bring a lunch in and eat at my desk. I used to go for a 20 minute walk after that, but my walking buddy retired (at 55) and I’m not motivated to walk in the winter. In the spring I’ll start getting out for an occasional walk again.
It would cost me about $10 a day to buy lunch in the cafeteria, and that adds up way too quickly for me. And, it’s impossible to go anywhere since it’s about a 10 minute walk to my car, and another 10 minutes to get off site. Once off site it’s another 10 minute drive to the nearest shops or fast food. It would be over an hour round trip just to go off site and grab Subway or Burger King and bring it back to my desk.
So, soup and sandwich from home every day. Sometimes I just bring in the sandwich stuff and assemble it at work. I keep margarine and mustard in the fridge.
TPTB decided to cut our lunch break from a full hour to a half-hour, unpaid, but have allowed us to combine the required two 15-minute paid breaks with that half-hour.
I typically get something to eat out of the kitchen and play a game on my home computer until it’s time to turn my chair around and go back to work.
Grab something from the cafeteria to eat at my desk while surfing The Dope. Sometimes I knit, but usually it’s Dope. Although what I am knitting right now is simple enough that I can read The Dope and knit, too.
I usually take about an hour for lunch. I work at a university library (Vanderbilt), and generally leave my office sometime between 1:30 and 2:00. I usually lunch at the nearest restaurants – Subway, Panera, or Brueggers. I enjoy reading and drawing, so I bring a book and / or something to scribble upon.
Every other day, I wander down to the food court with my iPad, buy something and read stuff while I eat for about an hour.
On the other days, I hit the gym for about an hour, grab a quick lunch and head back to work.
No time clocks here and work hours are basically, "Make sure you do your work. If it takes 8 hours cool. If it takes 6 hours cool. If it takes 10 hours cool. "
Not sure if this is worth a hijack or its own thread - how much do you spend on lunch?
I bring my lunch because I’m a cheapass, and because that way I know how healthy or unhealthy I’m eating. Also, I really don’t care that much about food, so long as it fills me up. And I like the flexibility of nibbling all day long. So pretty much every day I bring a PBJ, a couple of pieces of fruit, and some nuts/raisins. I’d be surprised if the total cost was $1 per day.
I make pretty decent coin, and I’m amazed at the amount folk whom make WAY less seem to spend on lunch and Starbucks.
I often just get something as the Safeway next to work and eat at my desk, but when the weather is nice, I grab a sandwich, sit in a park near work and read a book. Invariably, someone from work walks by and says something like “why are you sitting alone?” Uh, cause I wanted to read this book in peace?
I bring a sandwich, string cheese and some cookies every day. I get my brown bag from the fridge, grab a free soda, and come back to my desk to read the Dope and look at email or a run in parallel. Except for Tuesdays when we have a meeting over lunch with either sandwiches or pizza.
On office days I’m the opposite of Anaamika; 90% of the time I go to the same pizza place. I go so often they usually give me the soda for free (although the saved money goes right into the tip jar). Denverites: it’s the Anthony’s Pizza on California just off the 16th Street Mall. PM me if you plan to be in the area on a Tuesday or Friday.
On telework days I either work through lunch, take a nap, or on rare occasions (like today) actually eat lunch.
I do smoothies for breakfast, so strawberries, bananas and milk. Strawberries are $5 for this season, bananas are like $3. Milk is $3. That’s $11 for breakfast for five days.
And then for lunch I usually just do Smart Ones, which are $2.50 a pop. That’s $12.50. I just drink water with it.
I get coffee for free at work.
So I can do a week’s food in less than $25. And I could go cheaper, but fruit smoothies are healthy and good for you and I like how they make me feel in the mornings.
I live about a half-mile from the office, so I typically grab food on my way and eat it at home. This gives my dog a crate break and I get to clear my head and hang out with her for a few minutes before going back to the salt mine. I usually read while I’m eating, although sometimes, I’ll watch a few minutes of something from Netflix or whatever. I do not watch TV at lunch.
Lately I’ve been working from home and soon will be transitioning to go back to the office once or twice a week (until the end of the contract, at which point I will be permanent WFH status). Oddly enough, I leave the house on my lunch hour – again, to clear my head. Only the dog has been free to roam about all day, so she doesn’t need any special attention. I usually run errands and either grab something to eat while I’m out or just eat when I get back. Today, I got a massage.
I have a couple of drawers at work where I keep my lunch stuff. Snyder’s Cheese Pretzels, soups and other microwaveable meals. The department has a mini fridge and I keep V8s and cottage cheese and chocolate puddings in there. So maybe $4-5 per meal?
Once in awhile I will treat myself to Sweet Tomatoes, which is right down the street.
I work in a downtown skyscraper with a food court in the basement. Our office consists of a shared space with sofas, etc surrounded by the actual offices, so its pretty common for a bunch of us to go downstairs and pick something up for eating in the common area.
I probably spend in the $8-$10 range. Sometimes I bring a salad from home and just eat with others in the common area.
I get anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on which job it is. In that time, I go to the break room, eat the sandwich I brought and maybe a granola bar or banana or something, and usually read a book. If there are other folks in the break room, I might converse with them.
Around 1:00 I grab whatever I brought, or order delivery, and eat while continuing to do what I do all day. If I bring lunch from home it’s Lean Pockets or soup or sandwich – a few dollars a day. But more often I will get delivery or pick up Subway – $10-$20 a day. Even if I could go home at lunch, I wouldn’t, because I’d be tempted not to come back!
I work in a windowless, fluorescently lit cube farm. It’s horrible. When it’s (unlike now) even kind-of nice out, I go outside, grab lunch from a food cart, and then sit on a park bench and judge the passersby.
I’m stuck in here in winter. I’ve been meaning to bring in a practice pad and some sticks to work on rudiments in an empty conference room somewhere, but keep forgetting.