I got fired for this! Even though it was my lunch break, I was off the clock, and I have a chronic illness that makes working an 8-10 hour day exhausting, I was fired since I was “setting a bad example for the junior staff”.

Guess who got an EEOC/disability settlement.

I wish break rooms with sleeping facilities were more common. A quick nap would be so much more helpful than a gallon of coffee.

Rant time. Lunch breaks are a fucking scam. Hear me out.

We’re made to believe that a mandatory 30 minute, unpaid, lunch is somehow a victory for workers rights. Tell me, do you really feel like you’re taking a break from work in those 30 minutes? Or are you still thinking about work? Are you still in “work mode”? Well guess what, that’s 30 minutes of you thinking about work and not relaxing that they are stealing from you. Your workday isn’t 8 hours, it’s 8 and a half hours. That 30 minutes isn’t really yours, it’s not enough time to get anything done. You don’t agree? Go get drunk during your lunch break. Oh what’s that? You can’t because you’ll face consequences at work? Well gee, sounds like that time doesn’t actually belong to you then if you’re not free to do whatever you want.

It used to be a job was 9-5. That’s 8 hours. Total. You either had a paid lunch, or you ate on the job. But it was PART of those 8 hours. I don’t know about you, but if I’m not getting paid for it, I don’t want to be at work a second longer than I have to. I’ve had a few jobs that let me work through lunch and it was great, I could keep working and eat at my desk and I was out of the door 30 minutes before the rest of my co-workers. Jobs that force me to take a lunch are BS. I don’t need 30 minutes to eat a sandwich, and the remaining time is NOT relaxing. I don’t get to unwind from work. I am instead filled with rage that I’m just wasting time, not getting paid, in order to uphold the illusion that the company “values our time”, when really they’re just holding us hostage.

Mandatory, unpaid, “breaks” are just a form of wage theft.