Voices

Accountants Secretly Yearn to Lunch with Coworkers

Nearly half of accounting and finance professionals in a recent survey said they typically spend their lunch breaks eating alone, even though almost as many said they would rather have a coworker join them for lunch.

The staffing company Accountemps, found that 49 percent of the accounting and finance professionals polled said they typically spend their lunch breaks eating solo, though 46 percent said they would prefer to lunch with a colleague.

Besides sharing lunchtime with a coworker, 37 percent of those surveyed said they would like to exercise on their lunch break, but only 10 percent actually do. Survey respondents said they more frequently run errands (33 percent), check personal email (28 percent) and surf the Internet (24 percent) during their lunch break. About 3 percent confessed they take a nap.

Whatever they end up doing, at least it gets them away from the office.

“The simple act of taking a break—even for a few minutes—can help clear your mind and broaden your perspective, especially when facing challenging business problems,” said Bill Driscoll, a district president of Accountemps, a Robert Half company.

A table showing the survey findings is below, or you can view an infographic here.

 

What
Respondents Do

What They
Would Like to Do

Enjoy a meal by myself

49%

32%

Enjoy a meal with my coworkers

37%

46%

Run errands

33%

30%

Review my personal email

28%

20%

Peruse the Internet

24%

19%

Check out my social media networks

15%

12%

Exercise or go to the gym

10%

37%

Take a nap

3%

13%

*Multiple responses allowed.

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