No, working from home does not mean sacrificing the quality of your lunch and necessarily spending this time alone in your living room. Better still, according to a study* conducted by the BVA for Sodexo and Toqla, lunchtime has taken on a new dimension.
Specifically, 87% of employees who telework say they are “worried” about eating healthy at lunch (compared to 74% of those who never telework) and 55% choose a “home-made” meal while 40% eat out for lunch ( fast or traditional catering).
However, the downside is that working from home encourages snacking for 51% of teleworkers…
Above all, “despite the recent boom in teleworking in the business world, the lunch break continues to be an essential moment for the French, because it is a vector of social ties.
disconnection time
Thus, 39% of teleworkers take advantage of this moment to strengthen social ties with their colleagues compared to 27% of those who do not telework.
In fact, and this is a paradox, eating alone is more of a habit for on-site employees than for those who work remotely.
And once in the office, 81% of teleworkers (compared to 72% of the rest) state that “the lunch break is a privileged moment to discuss and maintain a relationship with colleagues”.
Lunch in a teleworking context also allows you to associate other activities.
A slightly longer break for teleworkers
35% take the opportunity to go shopping (compared to 17% of face-to-face employees), 30% to read (compared to 19%), 28% to go for a walk (compared to 16%) or even to play sports: 17% versus 7%. For 8 out of 10 employees, the lunch break is experienced as a true moment of disconnection.
This time is also used by teleworkers to advance in professional matters (advance in their work, discuss a project, manage their team, maintain their network, get trained, etc.).
They are 82% doing it (including 29% more than once a week) vs. 60% of employees on the site.
Finally, does telecommuting mean a longer lunch break? It seems so, since 51% of remote employees spend more than 45 minutes, while only 40% of those who never telework spend that time.
*: BVA study for Sodexo/Toqla, carried out from January 24 to February 6, 2023 with a representative sample of 1,000 employees of medium and large companies formed by the quota method, regarding the criteria of sex, age, occupation , company size, sector of work and main activity. In the sample, 545 employees declared that they practice teleworking.
Source: BFM TV
