A note to the HR/People team around the world.

Oh! How I wish everybody announced lunch break, like these pretend people! ;) Photo by Vlada Karpovich

When pandemic hit, all of us were forced to stay at home and those who were lucky could continue working from home…As we tried to navigate the work from home lifestyle, newer ways to communicate, collaborate and interact emerged. And along with this, some new and some old practices of the classical workplaces resurfaced.

One such practice was that of dedicated lunch hour for all employees. I am truly thankful to the people team at Clear for blocking everyone’s calendar for a dedicated lunch hour.

A view of my work calendar. Notice the Battery Recharge hour from 1–2pm (that’s the lunch hour) and the Unwind and unplug hours 8pm onwards.

I found the notes from HR in the Meeting description quite sweet :)

I probably took this for granted or didn’t fully realise the value of this. Not until I observed friends and family around me working in other companies, struggling to take out time for a peaceful lunch. Just because the organisation did not block their calendars or declare a common lunch hour, meetings get scheduled throughout the afternoon, leaving no dedicated lunch time. I have seen folks hurriedly gobble up their lunch or hurriedly grab their lunch and eat during a meeting...or even miss lunch at times because of this. This is insane and unhealthy…physically and mentally!!! So this is my sincere request to all the folks who have the authority to take this call for the organisation…Please block a common dedicated hour for lunch for all employees. Not only your employees, but also their friends and families would be thankful.

PS. If you want to go a step further and want to be more employee friendly, then take a leaf from Clear’s book. Schedule “unwind and unplug” hours at the end of the day where everyone is encouraged to disconnect from work.

What are some of the good practices at your organisation? Let me know in the comments :)

Cheers!