eating lunch at your desk....

Mhedden · February 2006

We've received some complaints from employees - that other employees are eating at their desks and the smells are offensive. Also - the perception is that employees will leave the building for their lunch hour - come back after the hour with lunch and proceed to eat their lunch at their desk.

I have been asked by some of the employees that are offended to address this. Our company does offer 2 kitchens with tables/chairs - however I believe it's become a habit to eat at the desk.

Has anyone else run into this issue - and if so, how have you handled it?

Thanks!

CindyG · February 2006

We actually allow eating at the desks, because we have flex times. People can leave early on Fridays if they have their 40 hrs in, and many times they'll put extra time during the week by not taking their lunch, yet eat at their desk while they work.
The employees like it, yet we get mixed reviews from management. It's nice to offer this flexibility and it attracts people, but I also feel that people need a break in their day to clear their heads or stretch if they're doing repetitive keyboard work.
We haven't had any issues about smells, like with heating up fish, etc - YET!

njjel · February 2006

this is a determination management needs to make. we allow it (we allow a lot of things!) However, if it gets out of hand and you have numerous complaints, then you may want to put out a policy prohibiting it. I would say that as long as the ee's who have gone out for their hour lunch and then eat at their desk, actually work and eat at the same time, it isn't a problem. however, if they simply take another 1/2 hour to just eat, it is a problem. I worked at one place where NO ONE was permitted to bring Chinese food into the office because the boss hated the smell of it! So again, management needs to decide.

Paul in Cannon Beach · February 2006

I think the concept of a "lunch hour" means you come back to work with your lunch eaten, ready to resume work.

Are we talking about exempt ees? Here in Oregon, if an ee is not completely relieved of all duties during a meal period, that time must be paid.

So if one of your ee's is sitting at his desk eating lunch and gets a work related phone call, that meal period would be considered paid time.

pork1 · February 2006

Not only is it paid time but it will also restart the lunch break dedicated to eating.

We do not allow one to work and eat. It is very easy for a lunch/eating rest break to become a paid 30 minutes or one hour paid lunch break by keeping my own personal record in my desk calendar and when I leave after several years of keeping my record of the lunch break (eating at my desk) and now charge your company with a wage and hour audit and you will pay me for those eating hours at my desk that you refused to pay back when I was employed. I will win because your company has no record of when I worked and when I ate over the lunch/rest period.

I have been there and done that, my recommendation is for the company to get behind a policy that says lunch breaks are rest breaks and everyone not scheduled for work during that time will leave the work site to rest or/and eat. Going out for an hour for rest and then bringing lunch back, where I consum my meal and try to get my mind on the job at hand is also not allowed.

Our very weak stance on this issue cost the company with perfect records to show what we did pay, was no match for the personal record of the X-ee, written in 40 to 50 spiral pockets note books. You can not defend, it is a loosing battle because we had nothing to show that we did not cause her to work while eating and did not get paid! We also did not have a record of discipline on any employee that refused to work during their lunch break, no we had records which proved that her record was possibly true. The excuse, that she volunteered and was not forced to leave her desk will not hold water either and it supports the X-ee's claim. Her record is the trumping records. It cost our company $25,000.00 plus interest to get clean with our bad habits of not following company policy.

This is a money maker for those EEs with a reasonable knowledge of the FLSA. It takes time but upon leaving the company my expense to create periods of time when no one was watching or recording will have been well worth my efforts. Some consider it a little savings bank. The only way to defend is to have a pure policy and stick with it. If your company needs people in the building during lunch hire a temp for two hours a day and everybody leave the desk area and don't allow anyone other than EXEMPT employees to return to their desk before the end of the lunch period.

PORK

NaeNae55 · February 2006

We have a few exempt employees occassionally eat at their desks, but they almost all have private offices where they can close the door.

Hourly employees must leave their work area for the lunch period. Once in a while we have had employees run errands on their lunch break and bring lunch back with them. One in particular was getting carried away with it. The only reason we noticed (she sits in the back corner) was that the lunch she was bringing back smelled really bad. Her manager told her that eating at her desk should be limited and only used in extreme situations (you have to pick up a sick child and you do it during your lunch break as opposed to shopping for a new outfit). The manager also told her that even if she eats at her desk, she must make sure that whatever she is eating does not have a strong smell and offend others nearby. The employee can eat the smelly stuff if she wants, just not at her desk or anywhere in the work area.

Too bad we can't make that order building-wide. We have an employee who brings in some kind of vegetable dish and eats it nearly every day. She heats in the microwave and the odor seems to spread throughout the entire building. It smells so bad employees end up avoiding that part of the building.

Good luck!

Nae

njjel · February 2006

We have an employee who takes garlic tablets for health purposes. You can only imagine the odor that comes from THAT office!

Mhedden · February 2006

Thanks so much!

WT · February 2006

From time to time the office brings in food and all the employees eat in the work area. We permit this with the understanding that if they take time and eat there, they cannot then claim another lunch break to socialize or do errands. As far as the most destructive use of eating at the desk, I cannot improve upon the advice Pork gives. The DOL takes the position that an employee needs to be completely relieved of all duties to have unpaid time although some courts have taken a more lenient approach and said the employee has to be substantially relieved of duty.

Rockie · February 2006

I have to agree with Pork. This is just one of several ways that employees get by with milking the clock for more overtime. We constantly battle with people eating at their desk and charging the time to the employer.

We have recently asked people, especially those in public contact, not to eat at their desk in view of patients. This is not a professional image that you want to cultivate with people having their breakfast and lunch spread out at their work station. We have break areas on each floor for the purpose of eating. Occasionally when we are short staffed, employees will eat on the run and it may just be for ten or fifteen minutes.

We also have had the problem of "stinky" food in the breakrooms. One of the worst is burnt popcorn which I have found out, some people like. We had to ban this as it was actually making people nauseous.

Dutch2 · February 2006

We are same as Rockie. We do not allow ee's in areas open to the public to eat at their desks. We also discourage it at all locaitons, but ...some superivsors are not as strict as others. On a topic not net mentioned, during a previous life we had a problem with insects and mice. The exterminatior that was called stated in his opinion this was due to so many ee's eating at their desk resulting in crumbs on the floor and food trash being thrown in the waste cans by their desk. Also a lot of the ee's were keeping some sort of snak cakes,candy, etc. in their desk. When we eliminated the fook at the work stations, the pests problem did not recur.

Rockie · February 2006

>We are same as Rockie. We do not allow ee's in
>areas open to the public to eat at their desks.
>We also discourage it at all locaitons, but
>...some superivsors are not as strict as others.
> On a topic not net mentioned, during a previous
>life we had a problem with insects and mice.
>The exterminatior that was called stated in his
>opinion this was due to so many ee's eating at
>their desk resulting in crumbs on the floor and
>food trash being thrown in the waste cans by
>their desk. Also a lot of the ee's were keeping
>some sort of snak cakes,candy, etc. in their
>desk. When we eliminated the fook at the work
>stations, the pests problem did not recur.

Yeah Dutch,I forgot to mention that on my post. We had a HUGE infestation of ants this past year and it was mostly traced back to people having stuff in their desks, dropping crumbs on the floor, etc.

System · February 2006

Managing time is critical and needs consistency in order to avoid the issues that Pork set out. Language in the FLSA states that if the employer "suffers or permits" the employee to work, then OT becomes a liability to the employer. "Permits" is the key term and calls for the employer to control the work schedule or otherwise be prepared to pay OT now or later. Kinda like the old Fram oil filter commercial, "pay me now or pay me later." I suggest that you get control of this relative to non-exempts and have them observe their scheduled lunch break away from the work area so that they are not "suffered or permitted" to work. DOL will only care about the "hours worked" in the workweek, not whether it is a matter of convenience for the employer.

Paul in Cannon Beach · February 2006

MikeatUniversityofColonialAvenue - I haven't seen you post here before. Welcome aboard, if you are new. If you aren't, forgive me. I also think you win the award for longest forum name. I'll ask James what you have won. My guess is its a forum mug.

Time for lunch.

System · February 2006

PaulinCannonBeach,

MikeatUniversityofColonialAvenue hasbeenhereawhile (whocanforgetthatname) butonlypostseveryonceinawhile. Good to see you again, Mike.

A friend did an experiment in college that showed that the top of a desk can have more germs than a toilet seat. But I'm not ready to eat in the restroom.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

Dutch2 · February 2006

Now James.... MythBusters recently proved that a (their) toilet seat was actually a clean area.

System · February 2006

Well you've received some very good advice regarding lunches at desks, especially those related to FLSA regs. In addition to the issue of odor, insect infestations and wasted time, the only other angle I can add is that eating at the desk is extremely unprofessional and discourteous to all others in the office. Additionally, you certainly wouldn't want a stray piece of lettuce or other food particles to accidently appear in a customers correspondance or a co-workers interoffice mail.
Offices are not deli's - don't allow employees to use them as such.

eating lunch at your desk....

Comments