Lunch hour: why you should stop to eat

午餐时间

Editor's Picks from The Economist

2025-04-24

6 分钟
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A handpicked article read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. Clearly delineated lunch breaks may have fallen out of favour among office workers. Our "Bartleby" column finds reasons to resurrect the midday meal. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.
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  • The Economist.

  • Hello, Alok Jha here.

  • I host Babbage, our science and tech podcast.

  • Welcome to Editors' Picks.

  • Here's an article handpicked from the latest edition of The Economist, read aloud.

  • I thought you might enjoy it.

  • When Monica Lewinsky, once an intern at the White House,

  • was cajoled into a lunch date by Linda Tripp, a colleague wearing a wire,

  • she was met by fbi agents and taken to a room in Washington's Ritz-Carlton Hotel to be interrogated.

  • What seemed like an innocent lunch date

  • was one of the first steps towards a presidential impeachment.

  • Yet one of the more remarkable aspects of the story

  • is that even lowly workers took lunch in a restaurant back in those days.

  • The clearly delineated lunch break has fallen out of favour in these more pressured times.

  • Knocking off for a midday meal could now be perceived as a sign of idleness.

  • What was once called a "lunch hour" is now more likely to consist of a sandwich "al desko".

  • According to a study by the Hartman Group, a market-research firm,

  • 62% of American office workers regularly eat at their workstations.

  • Some will mourn the decline of sybaritic three-course affairs

  • with wine, perhaps bookended with cocktails and a cigar.