Lunch breaks are a great time for catching up on television and bonding with people, or both. Regardless, there are many different ways to do work lunches. Do you pack them or buy them at a coffee shop? Do you take an hour to eat them? Or do you eat them while getting work done?
According to a survey of 500 American workers from Fooda, 90 percent of workers buy lunch at least once a week and men are more likely to buy lunch than women. People between the ages of 42 to 49 are most likely to bring their own lunches, with 85 percent of the demographic bringing more often than buying. When buying lunch, 63 percent of people buy lunch from restaurants nearby, followed by 18 percent who buy lunch from a cafeteria. 78 percent of people also buy their lunches mainly from one to five different restaurants.
Workers in the food and beverage industry take the shortest lunch breaks, clocking in at 31 minutes on average, while people in media and communications take 58 minutes for lunch. Outside of eating, 55 percent of people regularly run errands during their lunch breaks, but 89 percent have admitted to having run errands during lunch breaks. One-third of workers also take naps during lunchtime. Surprisingly, people over 50 are less likely to fall asleep during lunch breaks. Despite the West Coast having a reputation for being relaxed, workers in the northwest are the least likely to take naps, and people in the southeast are most likely to.
See the infographic below for more statistics on work lunches, and maybe look through Paste’s gallery of lunch-spiration to figure out what you should bring to your next work lunch.
