Eating at your desk is banned in France
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Re: Eating at your desk is banned in France
#2> Eating a salad at your desk may not be the most memorable kind of lunch, but at least you can get some work done. In France, that's forbidden.
> The French labor code prohibits workers from eating lunch in the workplace.
Is that a thing? At all my desk jobs I've had collegues (or myself) eating at their desks. It seems like it's indeed a thing https://grh.ooreka.fr/astuce/voir/266456/manger-a-son-poste-..., but I don't think it's applied for desk jobs. It's the first time I've heard of it.
Re: Eating at your desk is banned in France
#3This is one of the reasons why I love to work from home. I'm not beholden to company policy that seeks to improve productivity at the expense of how I choose to structure my day.
Maybe I eat at my desk so I can spend that hour lunch break with my kid in the afternoon. Maybe I'll take a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day because I didn't sleep well the previous night. I'm so glad to be rid of these inflexible, petty rules that are for the average, not the individual.
Re: Eating at your desk is banned in France
#4> Eating a salad at your desk may not be the most memorable kind of lunch, but at least you can get some work done. In France, that's forbidden. > The French labor code prohibits workers from eating lunch in the workplace. Is that a thing? At all my desk jobs I've had collegues (or myself) eating at their desks. It seems like it's indeed a thing https://grh.ooreka.fr/astuce/voir/266456/manger-a-son-poste-... , but I…
I can confirm it's forbidden. Depending on how sensitive the company (and its lawyers) is, it may be enforced or not.
Re: Eating at your desk is banned in France
#5Article that deform the reality to be more clickbaity.
Yes it is forbidden to eat 'at your desk', for obvious sanitary reasons, but I never seen it enforced.
But it is ok to eat in the workplace. More than that, company are supposed to provide a dedicated 'break' space with tap water access.
The root of the sanitary reason is obvious, you just have to see the regulation about restaurant and food serving places in France, even if a lot of people are sadly not respecting it.
Re: Eating at your desk is banned in France
#6This is one of the reasons why I love to work from home. I'm not beholden to company policy that seeks to improve productivity at the expense of how I choose to structure my day. Maybe I eat at my desk so I can spend that hour lunch break with my kid in the afternoon. Maybe I'll take a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day because I didn't sleep well the previous night. I'm so glad to be rid of these inflexible, petty…
This.
I eat at my desk because I want that break time to do something else that actually matters to me and furthers my own personal goals
Re: Eating at your desk is banned in France
#7We need more of this in America. Perhaps we just need to take the time ourselves and leave no apologies. Too many meetings get scheduled over lunch and people lose their windows of opportunity.
This has somewhat shifted with remote work too and when one decides to take their lunch. I’ve started to do that at the beginning or end of the day because I know I won’t have a chance midday.
Re: Eating at your desk is banned in France
#8This is one of the reasons why I love to work from home. I'm not beholden to company policy that seeks to improve productivity at the expense of how I choose to structure my day. Maybe I eat at my desk so I can spend that hour lunch break with my kid in the afternoon. Maybe I'll take a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day because I didn't sleep well the previous night. I'm so glad to be rid of these inflexible, petty…
This. I eat at my desk because I want that break time to do something else that actually matters to me and furthers my own personal goals
In some places this can develop into the expectation that everyone eats while working at their desk every day. You're not shifting the free time, you're just losing it. Then anyone who announces "okay, off to a cafe, see you in an hour" is seen as slacking.
Re: Eating at your desk is banned in France
#9This is one of the reasons why I love to work from home. I'm not beholden to company policy that seeks to improve productivity at the expense of how I choose to structure my day. Maybe I eat at my desk so I can spend that hour lunch break with my kid in the afternoon. Maybe I'll take a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day because I didn't sleep well the previous night. I'm so glad to be rid of these inflexible, petty…
This article is clickbaity.
no lunch police will come knock at the door once you start eating your salad.
It’s more about forcing workplace to provide a dedicated space with a table, a fridge … the minimal amenities to have a civilized lunch. Establish rapport with your coworker, or focus on your cold pasta salad to reach mindfulness.
If you want to save 2min40s and develop a ulcers, you are free to do so.
Re: Eating at your desk is banned in France
#10This is one of the reasons why I love to work from home. I'm not beholden to company policy that seeks to improve productivity at the expense of how I choose to structure my day. Maybe I eat at my desk so I can spend that hour lunch break with my kid in the afternoon. Maybe I'll take a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day because I didn't sleep well the previous night. I'm so glad to be rid of these inflexible, petty…
IMO the bulk of this is due to workplace culture, not being remote. Naturally being at home adds some logistical flexibility, but the bulk of the gap is between companies who treat their employees like toddlers and those who actually respect them as adults (see also: dress code for non-customer-facing work, overly-fixed hours, etc). You can see this distinction in the slow creep of employee-monitoring software over the last couple of years, where being remote doesn't save you (though I would guess that this is unlikely to take hold).
On the flipside, there are workplaces who avoid this form of contempt for their employees without being remote. My in-office job at eg Google had the majority of the flexibility you're describing, including the naps! The other companies I've been at didn't have the same resources as the Googleplex, but still trusted me to understand best what determined my productivity. Perhaps I've been spoiled, but I truly can't imagine working somewhere that was so openly disrespectful of my ability to do my job effectively; I'd feel like a McCashier or something.
On the axis of workaholism, this French law and, say, Goldman Sachs may be on opposite sides of the spectrum. But on the axes of treating employees like children, they're two sides of the same coin.