Maybe it was Gordon Gekko, the insider-trading champion of greed in the 1987 movie Wall Street, who killed the lunch hour with his famous put-down: "Lunch is for wimps".
Back then, long lunch breaks were common – but ever since, the era of the long lunch has been swallowed by the age of the no-lunch.
Nowadays many workers are tied to their work , unthinkable in Gekko's day, by the tyranny of computers, screens and an "always on" lifestyle; workers are relentlessly connected to their email, phones and jobs – often eating lunch at their desks and failing to take a break universally recognised as being good for health and productivity.
Kiwis spend an average of 42.7 hours working per week – the ninth highest in the OECD – and working long hours has become a badge of honour. Work-life balance has become a difficult juggling act. We are less active, more stressed, sleep less and spend more time sitting indoors.
Now the country's largest health insurer, Southern Cross Health Society, is saying "enough" – and is heading a national movement towards taking a lunch break, maximising that midday refresh time by launching "NZ Lunch Well Day" March 28.
Chief Marketing Officer Chris Watney says it's well known that taking a break, getting outside and moving around boosts wellbeing and there are health risks associated with sitting down for too long.
Southern Cross was alarmed at the trend revealed by their latest national survey, Impacts of modern life on wellbeing, conducted with Clarity Insight late last year. It showed 35 per cent of Kiwis don't take a lunch break at all. Worse, those who don't take a lunch break report lower levels of personal wellness overall and rate themselves lower for sleep quality, eating habits and work-life balance.
Southern Cross decided to test its own staff – and found in an internal survey that 49 per cent sat for more than seven hours a day, with only 42 per cent taking a full lunch break every day. Now, with bosses leading the way, Southern Cross is encouraging fewer lunchtime meetings and discouraging eating at desks.
Watney says the organisation places a lot of emphasis on building a positive culture around wellbeing and life balance: "Yet these results show we still have work to do. That's why we've started Lunch Well, firstly to acknowledge this is something we want to change for our people and ultimately to encourage other businesses and all kiwis to join the conversation and make changes."
"We are doing this because we want to help people stay well; we don't just want to be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff when people get sick," says Southern Cross Health Society Chief Medical Officer, Dr Stephen Child.
The message applies to all occupations, from parents juggling kids at home to part-time workers and students, says Child: "NZ Lunch Well Day is designed to increase recognition of the importance of lunch breaks – though it is not the break itself but what you do with it, whether it's a gym session, listening to a podcast or meeting a friend.
"There are huge bodies of evidence which show that physical activity – particularly at lunchtime and not early morning or late at night – improves chronic fatigue, mental health and insomnia," says Child who himself swims two lunchtimes a week and walks on another day.
"If you have a half-hour or one-hour lunch break, that's 120-240 hours each year you could dedicate to your wellbeing. We are saying to people: ''Those are your hours, take them back'."
"It's also about changing the culture from people thinking they are more productive if they keep going without breaks. After we work hard for long periods, our brain performance decreases and we can start to make bad decisions. It should be about stepping back, refreshing the mind and reducing stress in order to work smarter."
Southern Cross is not alone in its lunch break findings. Nearly 75 per cent of Australian workers are not taking their designated lunch break in full or in part, with 10 per cent saying they never took a lunch break, according to a survey of over 1200 professionals late last year by recruitment company Hays.
In the US, Right Management found that from thousands of employees surveyed, 81 per cent were not taking what used to be considered a real lunch break.
Child says the wellbeing survey findings add to other alarming statistical findings* about the state of health of New Zealanders – one in three are obese, only 39 per cent eat five-plus fruit and vegetables a day and only 50 per cent get enough exercise.
A break is a chance to step away from a screen, he says, and lunchtime meetings – if they had to be held at all –could be stand-up or walking meetings.
"Our survey of Kiwis found that 38 per cent of those who didn't have a lunch break said their wellness was "not good". In comparison, only 14 per cent of those who lunched said the same thing."
"There's a connection between taking a lunch break and greater work-life balance," he says. "Of those who take a break, 40 per cent say they have a 'great' work-life balance. Meanwhile, only 26 per cent of those who don't take a break at all are happy with their work-life balance."
Click here to find out more about NZ Lunch Well Day.
*Statistics from various sources, including Stats NZ, Ministry of Health, NZ Health Survey and wellbeing survey, Impacts of modern life on wellbeing by Clarity Insight, commissioned by Southern Cross Health Society