Coffee keeps Britain working

Every working day Brits are depriving themselves of a whopping 7.3 million hours of down time – with 50% of us taking less than half an hour on average for lunch*. New research by Lyons Coffee delves into the vagaries of office habits, highlighting the importance of breaks.

Worryingly 78 percent feel that their lunch breaks are the shortest they have ever been. Three quarters of canny workers take coffee breaks during their working day to gather thoughts and prevent brain drain. And with 60 percent of all of breaks lasting between 6 – 15 minutes Brits are reclaiming some of those lost hours this way.

Fresh perspective
95 percent feel that thoughts are clearer and feel able to tackle work with fresh perspective and new energy following a break. The most popular way to do this is to enjoy a cuppa, and 12.8 million office workers make a coffee to gather their thoughts, this is followed by a trip to the loo (19 percent) and a cigarette break (14 percent). Chatting with (and about) colleagues is the most cited way to use breaks and relieve stress at 44 percent.

Worried to leave workstations
Six out of ten workers (58 percent) leave the office less than twice a week for lunch. There is a clear age difference with 18 – 24 year olds most likely to leave the office every day with 45 per cent of 45 – 54 year old hardly ever leaving the office for lunch.

Volume of work is the most cited reason for not taking a lunch break at 42 percent, followed by the fact that colleagues don’t take long breaks and people don't want to stand out and because people want to demonstrate that they are a committed and hard working member of the team. Something that figures show the older workforce seems to take on board more readily.

Money Saving Experts
Cash conscious Brits are looking to save their hard earned money with 64 percent of us cutting back on coffee from high street retail outlets. The cost cutting exercise rises to 71 per cent in 18 to 34 year olds, despite more and more coffee shops popping up each week.

Donna Dawson, Psychologist says: “The present credit crunch has made people cut back on ‘extras’ such as take-away coffees, and it has also made the office a much more competitive place – with money tight and people afraid to lose their jobs, workers want to be seen to be prudent and company-loyal, by cutting their lunch-hour and breaks to a minimum. Older people, who are closer to redundancy and also wiser in the ways of office politics will be keener to do this.

“However, research shows that if a 15-minute break is not taken every two hours, then concentration and productivity actually go down. The body and brain needs refreshing, and so jockeying for position by taking shorter breaks is not only bad for the worker’s mental and physical health, but also less productive for the company in the long run.”

Murray Leslie, Lyons Coffee says: “Our consumer research into office habits of people in the UK shows that people are reluctant to give themselves valuable downtime during the working day. Breaks are key to feel refreshed and invigorated to approaching tasks and we recommend that employers encourage regular breaks. Our research echoes the fact that we’re all keeping a tighter rein on the purse strings at the moment, with over six in ten cutting back on take away coffees, and here at Lyons Coffee we offer a range of products for people wanting fresh coffee on the go.”

See coffeeperfection.com for more information.

*Figure calculated on half the working population only taking half an hour a day for lunch, so 7,277,000 hours. Employment figures generated in Feb – Apr 2009 by the Office for National Statistics, where the working population is 29,108,000.