More than half (55%) of employees do not take a full lunch break and only 29% leave the office for lunch every day.
Research from Lyons Coffee shows 58% of employees leave the office for lunch fewer than two times a week - but are reclaiming the time with breaks lasting up to 15 minutes throughout the day.
Some 95% of employees feel better after having a break. And 44% relax by gossiping with colleagues and 14% enjoy a cigarette. Break times are also used for the getting a few personal jobs done, such as online banking (16%), thinking a work idea through (12%) or emailing friends or family (10%).
Donna Dawson, a psychologist, explained: "The present credit crunch has made the office a much more competitive place - with money tight and people afraid of losing their jobs. Workers want to be seen to be prudent and company-loyal, by cutting their lunch-hour and breaks to a minimum.
"Older people, who are closer to redundancy and also wiser in the ways of office politics, will be keener to do this. However, research shows that if a 15-minute break is not taken every two hours, then concentration and productivity actually go down. The body and brain needs refreshing, and so jockeying for position by taking shorter breaks is not only bad for the worker's mental and physical health, but also less productive for the company in the long run."
People in Belfast are most likely to take a full lunch break (61%) compared with other cities in the UK while staff in Newcastle are least likely (64%).
