Copyright forbes
Normalizing taking a full hour’s lunch break is as easy as normalizing eating a sandwich over a keyboard. Don’t we all know by now that rest is a critical piece of the productivity puzzle? Taking breaks–to rest your eyes from the glare of a screen, to move your body, to allow the brain to recharge–isn’t just healthier, it sharpens focus. In short, rest and relaxation is a performance booster for those hoping to achieve more. And yet it would appear rest is still being downplayed and undervalued in workplaces. Studies suggest lunch breaks are short, if they’re taken at all. The vast majority–94%–of the 1,000 full-time US employees surveyed in June 2025 by ezcater and who worked in either an office, retail, hospitality or healthcare setting agreed taking lunch breaks boosted their performance, yet half skipped them at least weekly and a third skipped them twice a week or more. Being entitled to breaks doesn’t mean people have to take them. But given they’re there for the taking, and given the widely-understood benefits to focus and productivity, why would people not? Leah Brown, founder of The WayFinders Group, an organisational repair consultancy that rebuilds trust between leaders and employees, thinks we need more robust data on why people skip lunch breaks. She says most studies point to workload pressures, a desire or need to finish early and–in the case of the youngest working generation–fears bosses will judge them. But, she adds: “The data doesn’t show systemic issues like chronic understaffing, unrealistic deadlines or broken commuter patterns.” Another influencing factor is a cultural one. If the boss isn’t taking an hour for lunch it’s likely the rest of the team won’t either. But normalizing taking a full hour’s break is as easy as normalizing eating a sandwich over a keyboard. Leaders just have to be aware of their influence over the actions of others and convinced about the impact of rest on performance. MORE FOR YOU Should rest at work be mandatory? Some bosses believe they need to go further than leading by example. And a leader who has seen the benefits of protecting and prioritizing breaks first hand is Freya Fine, founder of Madrid-based social media marketing agency &Fine, who ‘enforces’ a full 60-minute lunch break every day, with no exceptions, for her team of six who work mostly from the office. She explains that many other agencies glorify non-stop work and that working lunches, brainstorming over food, or eating while packing PR boxes is the norm, meaning it’s all too easy for lunch to shrink to a quick bite between meetings. Fine adds: “It can feel small to defend one hour so fiercely, but for us, making it non-negotiable has become a defining part of our office culture and the difference in focus, creativity, and overall energy is noticeable. Genuine rest during the day leads to better focus, sharper creative thinking, and fewer mistakes in the afternoon.” 94% of employees agree taking lunch breaks boosts their performance, yet half skip them at least weekly and a third skip them twice a week or more. But is this always a realistic approach? Brown warns making breaks mandatory without understanding the root causes as to why people are not taking them will only exacerbate any cultural issues a workplace already has. “If people are skipping lunch so they can leave early to meet caring responsibilities or to beat a three-hour commute, the problem isn’t lunch, it's inflexible working. If people are skipping lunch because they are drowning in work, mandating breaks just means they'll eat while they work anyway,” she says. But Caitlin Rozario, founder of Interlude, a career development company that helps workers find more sustainable high performance, is firmly in favor. “Sometimes, an issue needs to be forced to make it happen," she says. Rozario wants to see an end to the stigma that persists around breaks at work, views rest as a performance strategy, and thinks business leaders who discourage it are directly damaging their company’s potential. “Aside from the moral implications, wearing people down is leaving money on the table and risks losing high performers to more supportive and forward-thinking workplaces,” she adds. “If lunch breaks were made mandatory, I would be very surprised if even the most sceptical bosses didn’t see an improvement in morale and culture, in attention and focus, and in quantity of high-quality work. And once they see that, this could help to shift the baffling stigma that still persists,” says Rozario. Does mandating rest infantilize people? But isn’t there an argument that mandating lunch breaks only infantilizes employees? In workplaces where flexibility is a top benefit for employees, people are trusted to structure their working days as it suits them. Heather Connery, cultural anthropologist and leadership expert at Anthrorg, argues mandating lunch breaks feels unnecessary today. “Over the last 20 years, as working patterns have become more flexible and organisational relationships more two-way, we’ve seen a shift. There’s now greater give and take around the traditional hour-long lunch,” she says. Connery says she knows people who work from 4AM onwards because they operate best in the morning, and others who have a later start, because they function better at night. She adds: “If a rhythm works for both employee and employer, why force an archaic approach? It is simply not productive.” But even someone who works flexible hours still needs breaks. And, without it, output and quality can suffer. How unwritten rules are wearing people out In the aforementioned survey on lunch breaks, the youngest working generation was more than twice as likely as older colleagues to believe employers would look unfavorably on them for taking a lunch break. In other words, people are looking to their co-workers for permission to take a full hour for lunch. It’s the unsaid, often accidental, rules and codes in workplaces that are perhaps the most damaging of all. Jaz Ampaw-Farr, CEO of Be Human First, believes the real work is in dismantling the unwritten rules that make people feel they can’t take lunch or have to give their life to work and sacrifice their own health and family to prove their value. She explains: “You can’t talk about wellbeing and then send emails at 11PM. with a note saying work your own hours. Because if you’re my boss and you email me, I’ll answer. And you can’t say, no meetings on Fridays, and then squeeze one in because it’s important. Culture change starts when leaders live by the same rules they set for everyone else.” Solving your company’s productivity puzzle, then, may be less about mandates and more about giving permission through leading by example. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions
