Yes, you. Stop eating lunch at your desk. You’re in front of the computer all day and your mind needs a break.
The best way to learn about the people you work with—on both a personal and professional level—is to eat lunch with them, or even just chat over a cup of coffee. From a purely productive standpoint, eating lunch away from your desk helps you do more by doing less. Working or browsing the internet while eating may seem productive, but you’re doing more damage to your work (and yourself) than good.
Here’s why it’s better that you eat and snack away from your desk during the day:
1. The Best Workplace Relationships are Built in the Kitchen
The kitchen is a safe zone where people come together throughout the day and are generally unafraid to open up to each other, even if it’s just to complain about the weather. It’s in the kitchen, over lunch or coffee, where you can really get to know the people you work with, and where the lines between “colleague” and “friend” begin to blur.
Taking a step back and heading to the kitchen, or grabbing some co-workers to get lunch from outside, gives you a chance to recharge and refresh.
You miss these changes to learn about the people you work with if you’re glued to your desk all day long. You’re also missing the opportunities to connect with people that truly matter within the company, like your direct managers, or the president and CEO—it’s in the kitchen where you can make the most memorable impressions in front people whose opinions really matter. Every time you pass up eating lunch with your colleagues, someone else is taking advantage by making connections and communicating with people that have clout within the company, and that can pull strings when it comes to promotions and career advancement.
2. Your Mind Needs to Refresh
While lunch at your desk may feel like a break for you, and browsing sites like Twitter at this time can certainly make it feel like a real work break, it definitely isn’t a break for your mind and eyes.
You’re still staring at a screen, regardless of what content you’re looking at—your eyes don’t get a break from the glare and strain, your mind doesn’t get a break from the tab switching and constant distractions. Taking a step back and heading to the kitchen, or grabbing some co-workers to get lunch from outside, gives you a chance to recharge and refresh. You get to engage in conversation, stretch your legs, be surrounded by people instead of computers—you’ll be refreshed to start the second-half of your day and ready to cross off everything from your checklist. When you sit at your desk throughout lunch, your day becomes long and drawn out, with no needed (and necessary) break anywhere in sight.
3. …Your Food Smells
It may smell good, but you don’t want the area surrounding you smelling like an old microwave. If you have to ask yourself, “I wonder if people will mind the smell if I bring this back to my desk to eat?” the answer is yes—spare us the smell of onions and garlic, thanks.