Workplace replaces lunch break with mandatory 'lunch and learn' where employees present on their work

JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor

Aug 2, 2026 9:00 PM EDT

What would you do if your workplace took away your lunch time?

Having breaks is incredibly important. It's an essential part of being in the workplace. You can't just work and work all day with no break. Your mind would quickly grow tired of it, and you would get worse at your job as the day went along. It actually makes you a better employee to manage your break time and your work time. You know this if you've ever had a big project. You can't just buckle down and do it in one stretch until it gets done, unless you're a very particular type of person. You need little breaks in between, even if it's just five minutes, to break it up. This is true with the regular course of our workday as well. Luckily, there's usually a built-in break time around lunch for us to use as we may. Not only is it a chance for us to fuel up and get our food in for the day, but it's a chance to step away from work to let your mind wander away from the task at hand. Your brain is always working, even when you don't mean it to, so it might even be solving problems in the background while you're munching on your chopped salad.

*^{Subjects are models.}*

*An office full of people eat lunch in a conference room*

In response to employee feedback of feeling disjointed, management thought taking away our lunch would be the solution.

We got a Teams meeting invite for a "Lunch and Learn" where the description asked employees to bring their lunch and watch demos from other team members. Upon the start of the meeting, it was revealed that several people have been volun "told" to present to us updates that their team has. It

was advertised as a "fun" way to "connect" each month. Like what?? Yes, let's take away your free time for a mandatory meeting every month with every higher-up in management and all of your coworkers. It puts people on the spot in front of ~200 people to give demos that they didn't want to give in the first place. It's impersonal, awkward, and inconsiderate. Can't wait for next month! /s

le4t I would consider this work time. It was at the place I worked that did these. So you go home a little early that day, or the following Friday. Ymmv.

kjbtetrick Things that ALWAYS went on my timesheet.

McBeaster At least buy everyone lunch if you're going to pull this sh, and do it like once a year

carmeeenloona wondering if we work for the same company because this is exactly what mine did today

This is an important part of the workday, and not one that should be taken away. Even if you spend it chatting with a coworker, or on the phone with a friend, this is a better use of your time. You'll come back to your desk, feeling refreshed and recharged. The workplace in this story did not quite understand that, though, and wanted to use lunchtime for something else. They noticed that morale was a little bit off, and they thought the way to fix that would be to create more meeting time. Employees were predictably unhappy with this, and saw it as cutting into their free time. Keep scrolling to see what you think about it and let us know what you think in the comments.

*^{The people in this photo are models}*
*A group of employees sit around a conference room at lunch clapping for a presentation*

pagemage I despise lunch and learns. I want to eat my food in peace and give my brain a break after a long work morning, not listen to whoever droning on about something I don't care about.

robotrousers I worked in CS at a little mobile reseller in the late 90s. We routinely had "working lunches" where basically it was a meeting but we could have 2 slices of pizza after. One time they had to get IT to come back because they didn't leave

any pizza for the rest of us. Another time I'm just sitting down with my two slices and our manager says "I'm turning the phones back on." "Excuse me, we haven't eaten yet." "I need to turn the phones back on." "You want us in a meeting for an hour, fine. But I'm taking a

lunch." She turned them on anyway, and my coworkers. started taking calls. When I asked for a raise, I was told "what if we show you how your benefits equal the pay increase." I couldn't tell them to enough. off fast

TriceratopsJam If you want people to connect you don't be organize presentations, you just buy lunch and most people will eat together and talk and connect.

Harmony109 My employer has tried that a few times in the last 20+ years. It never lasted more than 2 months. Turns out that management doesn't like missing their offsite lunchtime either

SomeSamples Just hang in there. These usually last two or three times until they stop. The management just doesn't want to be in those meetings.

QuietLifter I got volun-told once to do a presentation on motivation. They forgot to check my presentation to make sure it aligned with their message. Several coworkers resigned shortly afterwards, citing my presentation as eye- opening. I haven't been volun-told for anything since.

AWholeNewFattitude You would still be able to take your lunch period after that meeting. I agree with you, you're right, my only point is they cant use your lunch period for work, it doesn't go away, you still can take it.

dr_van_nostren Yea go on lunch as soon as this meeting is over. Specifically don't eat in there, then when it's done loudly go "alright well, that's lunch, see you guys later"

harderthanitllooks I hate lunch and learn. The idea of providing training is nice, but lunch is not the time for it.

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Workplace replaces lunch break with mandatory 'lunch and learn' where employees present on their work

What would you do if your workplace took away your lunch time?

In response to employee feedback of feeling disjointed, management thought taking away our lunch would be the solution.

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