Break Time

If you are accustomed to a culture where the one-hour lunch break is respected and fully utilised (perhaps even abused!), it can be disconcerting to come to a place where the lunch break is still officially one hour – but no one takes it. At best, your new colleagues rush to the cafeteria, wolf it all down in fifteen minutes and rush back, or eat at their desks; at worst, they don’t eat. You notice too that people take leave only in emergencies and forego the rest of their annual allocation, with or without monetary compensation. Your co-workers also habitually stay late even when they have nothing urgent to rush out. When you take your full lunch hour, or apply for leave just because it’s available, you get odd looks that make you feel like a slacker although you’re working harder than you did in your previous job.

Reasons

There are two main reasons why that kind of culture develops in some workplaces: at atmosphere of fear created at the top, and ferocious competitiveness on the ground. In the first instance, whether it is because of the mean personalities of the bosses, or a tradition of discouraging employees from using staff benefits, the culture is created by the people in charge, and you are unlikely to change a thing unless you possess unusual persuasiveness of power. In the second, the staff are so fiercely competitive that they use any means they have at their disposal to be or at least to appear more hardworking, self-sacrificing, disciplined and productive than their colleagues, even if this means not taking a holiday in five years or developing gastric ulcers.

Your Options

“Can’t beat “em? Join “em?” So goes the popular wisdom. If you really want the job and are ready to participate in the madness, go ahead. But if you don’t see the purpose of such unwritten rules, you will only be miserable, so perhaps you should move again, to a saner environment. If you insist on staying and battling the current by fully utilising all benefits due to you, you probably have rhino hide and supreme confidence in your abilities. However, be prepared to be the last one considered for plum projects and promotions if surface appearances are all that the people in charge look at. You could also stay and try to survive by convincing everyone that you are at your productive best when you have enough time to rest and recover, which means taking your full lunch break and leave. Of course you’ll have to prove it by delivering fantastic work performances, so good luck to you!