There is no “freedom for lunch break” in the workplace

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Author/Li Qiuhan, Tang Yahua, Zou Shuai, Wang Min, Editor/Wang Min

source/deep burning (shenrancaijing)

As the saying goes, “If you don’t sleep at noon, you will collapse in the afternoon”. The lunch break has always been regarded as a working gas station by the workplace. Nothing recharges a worker better than a high-quality lunch break.

Recently, the topic of lunch break has been on the hot search list many times. A company in Hangzhou issued a special announcement saying that employees are prohibited from sleeping on their desks in the morning. After attracting attention, the relevant person in charge responded that employees can choose other ways to nap, such as lying down to sleep. This was questioned by some netizens. The company wanted to cancel the lunch break under the banner of “for your own good”.

There is also news that an employee was dismissed after being warned several times because he was playing with the loud volume of his mobile phone during lunch break, but he still did not repent. He believes that he has the right to move freely during lunch breaks, and he also filed a lawsuit to demand compensation of 150,000 yuan from the company. The court held that although the worker had the right to rest, it should be on the premise that it would not affect others, and therefore dismissed his claim. However, this allows the migrant workers to see that their lunch break is also protected.

In order to have a high-quality lunch break, migrant workers have been sparing no effort. Earplugs, eye masks, pillows, and blankets can be described as the “must-have four-piece sets for lunch break” for professionals in the workplace. For more advanced ones, reclining chairs and folding beds are directly prepared in the office. However, even if the equipment is fully equipped, the lunch break is not easy to fall asleep. Sometimes it is the noisy noise from colleagues, sometimes the sudden work, and sometimes the company’s temporary system adjustment, which will destroy the very precious lunch time.

Shen Ran chatted with several workplace people who were “fighting” for “freedom for lunch break”. Among them, some of them tried their best to fight wits and courage with the leaders for the lunch break; some were deliberately woken up by colleagues knocking on the table during the afternoon nap, and immediately black face, unable to hold back; After two months, they still couldn’t bear to leave their jobs; after the company shortened the lunch break, some people thought that the company wanted employees to work overtime in disguise and chose to leave directly.

After a lunch break has formed a habit, it is very difficult to break it. In the workplace, keeping the “freedom of lunch break” has become the last bottom line of some workplace people.

If this job “must you”,

try to resist

Zhang Qiang | 41-year-old Wuhan construction industry practitioner

I work in construction, do technical work, and go to construction sites part of the time.

When we work in the headquarters of our unit, there is no problem with the lunch break. The office is very large. We have also bought reclining chairs so that we can lie down and sleep. However, when we go to the construction site for business, we will not have the freedom to take a lunch break.

In order to catch up with the progress, the project manager asked the leaders for credit, and always made various excuses, so that we did not have the opportunity to take a lunch break.

The first way, told us that the car that took us back to the hotel broke down and we had to stay here. Usually in this case, a few of us will find a car and carpool back at our own expense.

The second way, tell us that the local work starts at noon, and the electricity bill is free, so let us do technical debugging without rest. If this is actually a lie, it is impossible to have local electricity, and it is free by time period.

The third way, we have a very tight schedule, we can only rest for half a day a week, and we don’t even have holidays, not to mention taking a nap at noon.

Since elementary school, I have developed the habit of taking a nap. I must take a nap every day, and it is best to sleep for 1 hour. And we often work overtime. Sometimes we work overtime until 12 o’clock at night, and at the latest until 4 o’clock in the morning. On the construction site, if you don’t have good rest and don’t concentrate on work, accidents are easy to happen. It is easy to step on one foot here and fall over there.

In these situations, even if people can’t walk and can only stay at the construction site, I will find a way to take a nap. If there are friends I know nearby, I will find a reason to leave and go to sleep on the sofa of a nearby friend’s house. If you really don’t know someone, it’s like picking up junk. Find a cardboard to lay on the floor and sleep immediately. If you don’t have any cardboard, just lie down on the floor and sleep, or find a stool and sit and nap.

I don’t usually have direct conflicts with project managers, but some colleagues do. We have a very good colleague with first-class skills, and the project will not work without him. Once, the project manager asked him to visit at 1:00 noon. He pointed directly at the other person’s nose and said, “I’m going to rest now, go to the big leader, see Whether to fry you, or fry me.”

The work is not easy, I belong to the fact that I don’t know how to do it, and I secretly find a way to sleep. My suggestion is that in the workplace, if the job is a must for you, you have the capital, you can fight it, but if you don’t have it, you can find a way by yourself. If you can’t sleep, you can only forget it.

Can’t leave the workstation or take a nap,

The titular lunch break dissuades me

Mumu | 32-year-old Shanghai corporate employee

I used to work in private hospitals for more than ten years and have been engaged in nursing for a long time. In general, a lunch break is a must every day in the hospital. Most medical staff will use this time to sleep for a while to ensure that they are clear-headed in the afternoon and do things correctly. At that time, I took at least one hour nap at noon every day, and the first company after I switched to a clerical position also allowed me to sleep on my stomach during lunch breaks.

In the first half of this year, I went to a children’s education institution as a front desk administrator. The institution stipulated that the lunch break is from 11:30 to 1:00, during which I could eat or do my own things, but I was required not to go out and leave the front desk, nor to take a nap.

Our lunch is ordered by the unit. If you don’t want to eat, you can bring your own. Everyone eats at the work station. If there is unfinished work after eating, colleagues will continue to work. It can be said to be a nominal lunch break.

A few days after I joined the company, I heard a lot of impersonal requirements. For example, this organization clearly stated that employees could not leave the company during working hours, and if a colleague went to the convenience store next door to buy snacks for class as teaching aids, he would also be criticized.

After a few days of work, I felt that I couldn’t hold on without taking a nap, so I asked my immediate supervisor if he could take a nap. The leader said that the organization generally does not take a nap, and if you are really sleepy, you can take a nap for a while, but you should wake up in time when a leader walks by or a visitor comes to your door. I don’t think I can be so alert when I’m asleep, so I don’t sleep at all.

I can understand that the teachers in the kindergarten institution need to take care of the children at noon and cannot have a complete lunch break, but I am an ordinary front desk executive who can’t sleep for a while even though there is nothing to do at noon, which is really unacceptable. Because I didn’t ask clearly before joining the job, I was used to taking a nap during my lunch break and had a hard time, and I didn’t like the job very much, so I left after two months.

A lunch break is indispensable for me. A lunch break for about half an hour can refresh the brain and improve the efficiency of the afternoon work. If I don’t take a nap, I will feel drowsy in the afternoon. Moreover, once the habit of taking a lunch break is formed, it is difficult to quit.

In the recent news, the employee who was fired for playing loudly on his mobile phone during lunch break refused to correct it despite being repeatedly pointed out. I think it is understandable for the company’s actions. After all, during the lunch break, even if a colleague does not need a break, it should not disturb colleagues who need a break or are still working overtime.

I suggest that since the company has a lunch break, it should not restrict what employees can do during the lunch break. Whether it is eating out, taking a nap, or relaxing with a mobile phone, as long as it is during the break and does not affect the surrounding colleagues, it should be respected.

During my nap, I was woken up many times by my chatting colleagues.

It’s no use getting fired

Qiqi | 26-year-old Beijing Internet practitioner

I am a person who cares about sleep very much. From school to work, I have always maintained the habit of taking a lunch break. When I go to school, when there are classes in the afternoon, I will quickly finish my meal and go to bed for a while. It doesn’t take long for a lunch break, 20 minutes is enough. But those 20 minutes are very important to me, and it’s no exaggeration to say that if I don’t sleep in the middle of the day, I won’t have the energy to drink a few cups of coffee in the afternoon.

The company does not expressly stipulate when the lunch break is, everyone just eats at 12 o’clock and starts work at 2 o’clock. In these two hours, I eat for half an hour, take a nap for half an hour, and read for an hour. In fact, I am very tolerant of the lunch break environment, and I like to have some white noise. However, the lunch break environment in our company is very unstable. Sometimes everyone is at peace with each other, and sometimes the quarrel makes me scratch my head. That kind of noise is not a loud noise, but someone suddenly chatting loudly or making a sudden heavy movement, which instantly raised my heart rate. Moreover, it doesn’t matter if you quarrel suddenly, the important thing is that you can’t figure out when he will say the next sentence.

The one time that annoyed me the most was when I was lying on the table sleeping, a colleague came across and chatted very loudly. I vaguely knew that someone was talking on the other side, but I didn’t care. As a result, the other party suddenly started shouting my name, knocking on my desk, and waking me up. I was so angry that I was about to explode, raised my head sharply, and stared at him with a black face. When I said, “I’m sleeping,” my tone wasn’t very good, and I didn’t intend to be nice at the time. The other party was a little embarrassed, smiled shyly, and asked if he had disturbed me. I replied to him: what do you think? The atmosphere was so strong that I couldn’t stand it any longer. My colleague next to me smoothed it out, and I left the table directly.

What made me angry about this was that he had to wake me up knowing I was sleeping. In fact, except this time, I have often encountered people who want to call me when I am reading a book or sleeping with headphones on, and none of them are serious things. I have also posted before to complain, and I have also scolded other colleagues, including the above-mentioned conflicts, but it is completely useless, they are still so noisy.

I think it is possible to chat in the office, but the premise is not to disturb others. In my opinion, the nature of chatting and watching videos are different. The former may be too loud or fail to take care of the feelings of the surrounding colleagues. The latter is completely intentional. Going out to listen without headphones is this. Basic workplace etiquette.

Now I have absolutely no choice. If I can’t change others, I will change myself. Once I was quarreled with a headache, and I couldn’t bear it. It is true that people in the workplace do not have the freedom to take a lunch break. I think the best nap is to have a folding bed. Everyone can rest comfortably for a while, and work efficiency will be higher in the afternoon.

The company asked to shorten the lunch break and work overtime in disguise.

I filed for resignation

Xiaobei | 24-year-old Shenzhen education and training practitioner

I am currently engaged in design work in an education and training institution. In mid-to-late October, the company announced that it would shorten the lunch break and need to arrive 20 minutes earlier to enter the working state, which hit my explosive point at once.

In fact, I don’t have any special lunch break habits, that is, I have to sleep at least half an hour at noon every day to maintain the working state in the afternoon. We work long hours in the afternoon, about five or six hours. If I don’t get enough rest, I will have a hard time concentrating like a walking dead in the afternoon.

In the past, in the company, the lunch break was enough, but it was difficult to have a high-quality lunch break. Our working hours are from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm. The company’s original lunch break is 2 hours. Usually, it takes about 40 minutes for me to take take-out and eat, and then set aside ten minutes to deal with trivial matters. Able to sleep less than an hour, although the quality of sleep is not very good. Because some people in the company have the habit of taking lunch breaks, and some people do not, people who do not take lunch breaks often make relatively loud noises.

During my lunch break this summer, I used to feel miserable. Because the company sometimes does not turn on the air conditioner, the office space is very crowded, and there are cockroaches infested. I dare not lie down on the table to sleep, I can only lie back on the back of the chair, and I often encounter colleagues behind me, and there are people in the office. I slammed the door frequently and spoke loudly. I was often woken up. I was hot and irritable.

After the lunch break is shortened, although I can barely sleep for half an hour, my off-duty time has not changed, which means that I have extended working hours in the afternoon. The company also requires us to arrive about 20 minutes earlier in the morning. That is to say, we have to work overtime for 40 minutes in disguised form every day. I think this is the company’s disguised pressure. 40 minutes a day does not seem like a lot, but over time, it is not a small thing. number.

In fact, it’s not that I can’t bear hardships. Our company’s office environment is average, and we also implement large and small weeks. There is no overtime pay, and almost no benefits. I also accept it. However, now the company still has to work overtime in disguise and compress the lunch break, which has become the last straw that overwhelmed me. I directly mentioned my resignation, and I am ready to leave after the handover this month.

It may be difficult to find a job now, but I don’t want to waste my time in a company I don’t like all the time, and I’ve been learning and improving my core skills in my spare time. I think, as long as I am competent enough, I can always find a job in a first-tier city.

Recently, the topic of lunch break has become a hot topic. I think that in the workplace, colleagues should respect each other, try not to make noise, and do not disturb those who need a break. Respecting others during lunch break is the most basic professional quality. I You will also always have earphones at your workplace. Everyone’s physical condition is different. The company should let people who want to take a lunch break sleep well, and let those who don’t take a lunch break can let go of their hands and feet to deal with work and rest.

*The title map comes from Visual China. At the request of the interviewee, Zhang Qiang, Mumu, Qiqi and Xiaobei in the article are pseudonyms.


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