It is still about time

Lunch break becomes briefer as 'hour' shrinks By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY Mon Jun 12, 7:11 AM ET What lunch hour? More employees today are forgoing the traditional long lunch and taking an abbreviated afternoon break instead, using the time they'd normally eat to keep working or get other errands done. [USA Today]

In case you have not noticed (and judging by the surprises in this article, most of you have not) the average person spends more time working in five days than they do sleeping in seven. Throw in the commute and of a 7 day week, three-quarters of it is gobbled up by work and work related activities with about six hours of sleep per night. And we wonder why our co-workers are sick so often? Why less work seems to be done in an average week instead of more? These are all symptoms of a society that is on the ragged edge. It is not a function of business but a terrible by-product, a toxic waste if you will, that is further affecting the already burned out employee doing the job of more people that should be possible.

You cannot have double digit productivity gains year after year and expect people to be able to operate. Mistakes will increase as focus is continually eaten away. A short lunch break is only a symptom of a much larger problem.