Business Bartleby Reclaiming the office lunch Why taking a break to eat is a good idea 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 desco.
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 cyberitic three-course affairs with wine,
perhaps bookended with cocktails and a cigar.
Once these feasts regularly punctuated the working day for the likes of bankers,
lawyers and journalists, older ones in particular mourn long and loud.
Merrily weaving back to the office for a gentle snooze is a thing of the past.
Such lunches are not only increasingly rare,
but more probably lubricated with nothing fancier than sparkling water.
A main reason for their demise is that expense accounts are no longer so lavish.
Another is that the general mentality has changed.