Workers put in extra 16 days per year for free by eating on desk

London, July 13 (ANI): Stressed-out office workers give their bosses 16 extra days of work a year for free by not taking a full lunch hour and eating at their desks, a new study has revealed.

A poll of 1,000 people found that an incredible 60 percent of workers ate at their desks every day while two thirds take 30 minutes or less for lunch despite being entitled to 60 minutes.

This means that they are working an extra 128 hours a year - equivalent to 16 eight-hour days.

Even when staffs do manage to leave their desks they are usually on business with nearly a quarter admitting to regularly using the time to catch up with professional contacts.

The survey was held to coincide with next week's CBD Food Festival, which will be held in Birmingham.

"I think the ethos of austerity has deeply impacted our attitude towards lunch," the Daily Mail quoted Ann Tonks, director of the city's Colmore Business District, as saying.

"I can pretty much point to the day in October 2008 when the economic downturn hit and the legendary expense-account lunches which ran late into the afternoon were curtailed significantly," Tonks said.

An academic specialising in the science of workplaces said that employees were putting their health at risk by refusing to take a lunch break.

Dr Patrick Tissington, Associate Dean of Business Partnerships at Aston University, said people feel 'under pressure' at work, with many spending long hours at their desks, 'tapping away at keyboards, staring at screens and sitting with bad posture in awkward positions.'

He said that it was important and even productive for workers to take regular breaks, get up, move and walk around a bit.

"Resting, or taking a break in the middle of the day helps to clear out the mind and prepares us for a productive afternoon,' he said. The feeling of guilt for taking lunch breaks is a subject that is concerning and probably requires proper investigation," he said.

Dr Tissington said that he ensures to get away from his desk at lunchtime and deliberately chooses to get lunch from different places - varying his route to get there.

"This has the added benefit of exercise and, working in a large organisation, it gives me the opportunity to encounter different colleagues along the way," he said.

Office workers had admitted to sacrificing their lunch breaks in order to further their careers.

PR assistant Tammy Phillips, 24, from Birmingham, said that he hadn't taken a lunch break since past two years.

"The way I view it is that I can get on with work when its quieter at lunch time and it never hurts your career for the bosses to see you at your desk when your colleagues swan out for a sandwich," he said.

"The competition for jobs now is so fierce that I've known friends who have quit smoking because they don't want to be seen to be popping out for fag breaks during the day.

"I want to get ahead and further my career and I'll take my lunch break when I'm the boss," he added. (ANI)