10/24/2025

To Increase Your Company’s Productivity, Ensure Everyone Eats Lunch

Employees are increasingly skipping meals because they feel guilty taking breaks

The spreading of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in U.S. workplaces is only the most recent method employers are using to increase productivity. Now, new data is proposing a decidedly lower-tech manner of achieving similar results in improving employee focus, happiness and performance: Just make sure they are eating lunch.

The business benefits of workers getting their midday chow became clear in a survey of 1,000 full-time employees by corporate food provider ezCater. It found that 88 percent of respondents said that not eating lunch caused their job performance to dip. Around 43 percent of people skipping the noon meal blamed that slumping output on needing more time to complete tasks on an empty stomach, with 39 percent saying the distraction led them to make more mistakes.

The consequences of those afternoon productivity declines are probably affecting workplaces more than employers suspect. About 51 percent of survey participants said they skip lunch at least once during the workweek, and 33 percent said they go without twice a week or more.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Inc.