Last Week, the Urbanophile featured a great post titled “Want Talent? Drink at Lunch!” where author Aaron Renn proposed one small idea that he hopes could change corporate culture in the midwest and help to attract young talent to regional companies. Some additional commentary followed HERE on Columbus Underground, and I emailed some of this information to a few colleagues at the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and at City Hall where we continued to discuss this concept.
After mulling it over for awhile, I still think Aaron’s initial drinking angle makes for a sharp contrast to what is typically acceptable for lunch-time behavior in a corporate environment. So it does a great job at bringing to light the overall strict boundaries associated with business lunch hours, even if the encouragement of drinking at noon doesn’t sounds like a very feasible program to try to implement.
Having spent nearly 10 years in various white-collar work environments, I’m all too familiar with the 3,600 seconds allotted to each employee for spending during designated lunch periods, and the reprimands that can follow if the rules get stretched too far. Of course, some managers can be a little bit lax on the rules, but in many environments, being chronically late coming back form lunch is grounds for some form of work-place punishment.
Things completely changed for me once I started working for myself. Earlier this week, I had a leisurely lunch with a friend to chat about a new arts initiative I’m conceptualizing for 2010 (more on that later). There was no beer involved at our lunch, but the fact that we both work in environments where we can take a 90 minute lunch break meant that our time spent collaborating on a creative idea wasn’t bound by a time limit.
Of course, not all lunch breaks are spent working on ideas to help make the world a better place, but the end result can be the same after something more casual. After my particular extended lunch, I found myself energized, excited, and feeling even more productive once returning to my desk. It was invigorating to not be bound by the strict regulations I’ve faced elsewhere, but it’s also frustrating to know that I’m probably in the minority. I’m willing to bet that younger folks who are able to take a relaxed lunch make up less than 1% of the professional workforce. If you’ve ever attended a Columbus Metropolitan Club luncheon, you’ve probably noticed how few of those coveted “young professionals” are able to take that 90 minute lunch break. It’s only the upper-management who give themselves that leniency. I find it disheartening that even when it comes to something as specific as engaging in a civic forum and becoming more involved in community affairs, flexible scheduling is something that most workers have to officially request in advance, if they’re even allowed to take the time at all.
- Help foster creativity through encouraged mid-day civic engagement
- Decrease stress related to the lunchtime “rush”
- Increase mid-day productivity with a more reenergizing meal time
- Provide a better “workforce culture” that could serve our city as a more attractive environment to find a job
Aaron’s article caught my eye last week and I thought it was an interesting read. I’m not convinced the one-beer lunch would make a difference in Columbus or that it is a good idea.
In order to make a difference, Columbus would need to attract major employers in the creative-sector. Creativity sometimes seems like a small business pursuit here, while the major employers are banks and insurance companies. (LTD and affiliates aside). I think Aaron’s Portland to Indy comparison did a good job of demonstrating this.
Also, in Columbus, chances are good that I will drive within an hour of lunch and I think I would be putting myself at risk under Ohio’s DUI law. I worked at an ad agency that had beer-thirty and we’d break open the liquor cabinet for an hour or so before ending the day. It was great team-building and I looked forward to being there, but I certain many of us would not have passed a breath test on our way home had we been stopped for a minor traffic violation. Incidentally, the agency was purchased by a large Columbus-based company who immediately removed the liquor cabinet citing liability reasons.
-jt
What industries would participate? Our largest industries in the area: insurance, academia and government? This doesn’t sound plausible.
The longer (often expensed) lunches are a good lure for competitive recruiting in banking,accounting or law against top tier NYC organizations– but I don’t think this translates to the sort of employment we have to offer here.
I wouldn’t necessarily assume that management are the barrier to young people attending luncheons like those at the Metropolitan Club. It could be related to the cost of the lunches, topics, or it could be a function of who does the marketing, networking, and strategy at most companies. That’s a good reason to get more young people involved in these types of activities at a company, but I don’t think the managers are telling younger employees to shut up and get back to work while going out and having fun lunches all to themselves.
I think that stringent restrictions on lunch time (something completely trivial) is a part of a larger issue that a concept called Results Oriented Work Environment (ROWE) tries to address.
Apparently, such an approach was adopted by Best by in the mid-2000s (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_50/b4013001.htm), though I’m not sure of its longevity or results. I’ve tried as much as possible to incorporate key tenets of ROWE into my personal management style– as much as I can given corporate regulations– with what I think were great results.
At the end of the day (pun only sort of intended), as long as stuff is getting done within established deadlines, who cares how long of a break someone took in the middle of the day?
I think we should take a long look at the Europeans. Lunch is a time to connect, relax and did I mention connect?
I too used to work in a corporate environment, where lunch breaks were actively discouraged, unless it was with a client and even then, people grumbled.
I welcome the collaboration and the connection that a very productive, but unrushed lunch meeting brings.
Twitter, FaceBook and social media make it easier to stay informed, but I think more quality face time, in addition to these media options are good for creativity and relationship building. Service businesses are based on relationship. What kind of relationship can you build in a 15 minute fly by lunch.
Funny, I was just going to chime in with Susan’s sentiment. The original idea about a drink at lunchtime didn’t appeal to me that much because I thought, “Well, without changing our entire lunchtime culture, what’s the point? We’d just toss down a martini during our 20-minute lunches while scanning our Blackberries and head back to work.”
But spending more time recharging batteries and connecting with people between morning and afternoon work sessions could actually increase productivity in the afternoon, and substantially increase people’s levels of satisfaction as well. Interesting experiment for a forward-looking business to try out.
Rick - I guess I’m not sure why it doesn’t sound plausible for insurance, academia or government jobs to participate. It sounds to me like the biggest barrier is tradition.
John - Sure, there are other factors that keep YPs at bay from CMC events, so perhaps it wasn’t the best example I could throw out there. It was one that was personal though, as at my last fulltime job there were a few CMC luncheons I wanted to attend, but management would not approve a 90 minute lunch break. They didn’t see the value in it.
Derek - “At the end of the day, as long as stuff is getting done within established deadlines, who cares how long of a break someone took in the middle of the day?”
Exactly.
I don’t think extending lunch by 30 minutes is cutting into productive work time for most people. A simple google search reveals numerous studies conducted that reveal how many minutes per day are lost to “goofing off” in the workplace. I’m willing to bet that most of the workforce would be willing to trade 30 minutes of random internet surfing throughout the day for an extra 30 minute lunch and still make time to get everything done before they go home.
Is it possible that the current conventions for work and lunch productivity are products of a larger babyboomer culture? If so, then could lunch traditions change as the boomers retire and a different generation moves into senior management positions within corporate hierarchy?
I’ve struggled with the idea of having to be at a job from 8-5 even when I held one in various office jobs. I’m more of a task oriented person than being a punctual one. Sometimes I am just not mentally ready to take on a task at 8am sharp which leads to goof off time on the company’s dime. I’ve never had a problem with logging hours once I got rolling. My problem was the “when” part of the equation. I think it might have to do with our location’s culture. My best friend who is a “Type-A” personality moved from California to DC. California was too laid back for her and it drove her crazy. DC is more about being punctual and structuring your time in advance. I’m pretty much I’m the opposite. Who cares which hours I work, as long as it’s still 8 hours and I’m productive. I can be a workaholic when I want to be, I just don’t want to deal with rush hour traffic because the whole idea of it irritates me. At one job I negotiated taking a 30 min lunch but using the other 30 min to come in a half an hour later and that worked out for me better. Usually being young in the workforce means any little screw up means you are fired or reprimanded whether that means being 5 minutes late because of traffic or taking too long of a lunch break.
I think the CMC luncheon is a great example of this.
I’m a YP in city planning and I can’t even make it to those luncheons. Whoever thinks that lunch is a better time to meet for such a gathering is either out of touch, or intentionally creating an exclusive environment.
For hard-working YPs who can’t get time off for an extended lunch - or are afraid to ask - happy hour is the most convenient time to meet. I understand that the majority of the people who go to CMC luncheons have families and children and happy hour is usually spent commuting, at soccer games, etc., isn’t there some other way we can compromise?