We used to have scattered lunches but our boss decided to have us close the office for an hour every day for our lunch. (I use the term “close” lightly.) My two coworkers go to lunch together. I like to spend my lunch alone to read/decompress. I also prefer to not spend my money on takeout. If the weather is nice I’ll go to a park or sit in my car. But I haven’t really figured out what to do when it’s cold yet. I used to stay at my desk, and since it was scattered lunches my coworkers were available to help customers while I took a break. And visa versa. Well that doesn’t work now apparently since we all take a break at the same time. I stayed back and sat at my desk to eat/read whatever because it’s cold and rainy today. The office door was locked because, as you know, we’re taking our lunch break. Well someone showed up and was jiggling the handle. My boss yelled “someone is at the door.” I wanted to tell her to go answer it then. Or let them come back when our lunch hour is up. We’re all on our break that you decided we should all take at the same time for some reason.
In my opinion lunch breaks are not breaks if they can be interrupted by a customer pulling on a door handle. But apparently our “close” for lunch isn’t really a close. So now I’m going to either have to sit in my cold car, or drive 6 miles home every day. Since, if I stay back to sit at my warm desk, I’ll apparently have to work if a customer shows up. Why is it such a complicated concept to keep the door locked with a “be back at 1pm” sign? So what if a customer is knocking/ jiggling the handle? They can come back. We are entitled to an uninterrupted lunch break.
*I will say this. I will keep an eye on how much time I’m spending with a customer that I’m expected to help during my lunch, and that’s how much over the hour I’m going.