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Sunday, September 21, 2008
Study: Lunch breaks getting shorter
The Business Review (Albany)

Just like recess vanished in a number of public schools across the nation, lunch breaks in the workplace might also become a thing of the past, based on findings in a recent survey.

Company executives polled said their average lunch break dwindled to 35 minutes, compared to 42 minutes five years ago, according to a survey published by OfficeTeam, an administrative staffing firm.

On top of that, some managers also admitted they worked through lunch more than half of the workweek.

The survey was conducted via telephone to 150 randomly selected senior executives at the 1,000 largest companies in the nation.

"In today's 24/7 workplace, a lunch break often takes a back seat to e-mails, phone calls, meetings and pressing deadlines," said Dave Willmer, executive director of OfficeTeam. "Many people are doing more work with fewer resources and, therefore, putting in more time at their desks. Some may also be working across time zones and forgoing lunch breaks to accommodate their colleagues' schedules."

As lunch breaks keep shrinking, so are the number of tony restaurants offering the midday meal.

Glen Sanders Mansion served its last lunch Aug. 1.

Angelo Mazzone saw it coming: During its heyday 20 years ago, the Scotia restaurant was serving 100 lunches a day. In the end, a good day was 20.

"I should have done it 10 years ago, but I didn't have the heart," Mazzone says.

He isn't the only proprietor responding to the waning lunch crowd at upscale venues.

Anne Trimble, owner of the posh La Serre in downtown Albany, started offering a "bistro" menu two years ago to boost noontime business.

Lunch patronage had declined 70 percent over the last 20 years, from more than 100 a day to 30. Over the years, the 30-person staff La Serre employed in the 1980s has been reduced to 16.

Trimble also adjusted for a crowd that was eating lighter and spending less.

Known for its haute French cuisine, La Serre now offers a lunch menu with burgers and sandwiches. It's a stark contrast to the leg of lamb and roast pork lunch specials Trimble's diners demanded 20 years ago.

"We started offering a menu for people who don't want to have a $25 entree," Trimble said.

Lunches started falling off in 1984, the same year the Internal Revenue Service's Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 kicked in, Trimble said. The legislation reduced from 85 percent to 50 percent the percentage of entertainment expenses that businesses could claim as tax write-offs.

It's the same time that lunch business started declining at Glen Sanders Mansion, which once was a popular spot for General Electric Co. executives.

"Everything changed when the business guys stopped going in and having martinis at lunch," Mazzone said.

At the same time, brown-baggers reached a new high in 2007, increasing to 38 per person per year from 35 in the previous year, according to a June 2008 study from the NPD Group, "How Brown Bagging Is Affecting Food Service Lunch." The number translates to 8.5 billion bagged adult lunches per year.